Avatar of the Goddess
by Zerodone
Summary: By becoming Nyx' Avatar, not only can Hamuko return to the world of the living, she is also keeping the goddess away from Erebus. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows, as the mysteries surrounding the TV-World demand to be solved, less everything Hamuko had ever done would be for naught.
1. Chapter 1

Hamuko wasn't sure when exactly she had lost her fear of death. If she had to guess, it was probably around the time Ryoji revealed to her and the rest of SEES as to who and what he really was. Or maybe it was earlier. Perhaps it was when she first befriended him, back when he was still going around as Pharos. It would make sense, given that his true identity was Thanatos, the god of death in Greek mythology. Though if he was the god of death only from Greek mythology, what about all the other death gods? Did they even exist? The possibility was there that they existed in some form or other. Thanatos was the thirteenth arcana shadow, yet at the same time used to be one of Hamuko's personas. Nyx was the one who gave birth to death in Greek mythology and was also dubbed as the mother of all shadows. Maybe there was something shadow or persona related to every myth. It would make sense, seeing as Hamuko had used a wide variety of deities, gods, devils, spirits and so much more during the time she was still alive.

Thinking back to those times, Hamuko figured she should have done a bit more research regarding the different personas she had used. She only did it with very few of them, usually, those that piqued her interest in some way or other. Her first persona Orpheus, for example, was supposed to be male. He descended into the depths of Tartarus in order to save his wife, Eurydice. Hamuko had often wondered why her persona wasn't Eurydice. Sure Orpheus made much more sense, given that she was in a way taking the same journey as he once did, but still, the man was a man, not a woman.

Gender confusion aside, since Thanatos had appeared both as a shadow and a persona in Hamuko's life, the girl often wondered if it was possible for Nyx to be a persona. Sure, she was the being who would inevitably end humanity at some point in time, but hey, Hamuko had used the four apocalyptic riders and the world was still in one piece. It indeed was an interesting idea to fight Nyx with Nyx.

Speaking of the goddess of the night, Hamuko could feel the mother of all shadows invading her mind. This was a usual thing by now. Since Hamuko and Nyx were the only two beings here at the great seal, it didn't take long for the two to become acquainted with one another. And while Hamuko would have been perfectly fine waiting out the rest of her existence in tranquility, it was nice to have someone to chat with, even if that someone almost killed you at some point.

Well, technically speaking that hadn't been Nyx' fault. She had merely tried to grant the wish humanity was subconsciously yearning for that being The Fall. The Fall was basically an apocalyptic event in which Nyx will destroy humanity. The thing was, the end of humanity wasn't supposed to happen so early. As such SEES had done everything in its power to stop the Fall from happening. They succeeded at the end, but not without sacrifices being made in the process.

" _Are you reminiscing about the past again?"_ Nyx asked the human, who would have nodded if she had been capable of doing so.

" _Somewhat,"_ Hamuko replied inside her mind. " _I'm just wondering a little bit about personas. Like what kind of personality one would need to have in order to get you as a persona."_

" _Me, a persona?"_ Nyx sounded amused. _"An interesting thought process. Though, I doubt many humans would be capable of wielding me without consequences."_

" _Tell me about it. When Thanatos first made his way out of my mind, it felt like my skull was being cracked in half from the inside."_ Hamuko remembered the night she awakened to her power and how she lost consciousness for more than a week afterward. _"I guess that is why Igor would never let me have any personas that were too strong for me to handle. I'd have probably ended up as an apathy symptom case myself."_

" _I am rather curious as to who this Igor really is,"_ Nyx thought to the former wild card. _"Is he something akin to a persona, a being born out of the collective subconsciousness? Or is he an outside observer, trying to help humanity whenever the need arises subtly?"_

Hamuko had talked a lot with Nyx those past years. The Velvet Room had come up at some point and the two had often discussed how the room could have possibly come to be and sometimes even speculated about the other guests that Igor had very briefly mentioned at the beginning of Hamuko's journey.

"You know, if other persona users are out there, I wonder how they could miss something so big like the Dark Hour?"

" _Perhaps they simply couldn't find the source?"_ Nyx speculated. _"The world is a big place and humans are limited to where they can go by money alone."_

" _Guess you're right. That's probably the case,"_ Hamuko conceded. _"By the way, have you ever been_ _to the human realm?"_

" _No. Until meeting you, I was indifferent to humanity as a whole. Despite my role as the bringer of the Fall, humans were just things that existed. Similar to how most humans view ants and other insects, humans were just that to me."_

" _You used past tense,"_ Hamuko noted. _"Does that mean you changed your mind?"_

There was a moment of "silence" until Nyx spoke up again. _"I admit, my curiosity was piqued, when the two of us faced each other on the promised day. I was aware of you fighting back my avatar, which wasn't as surprising, seeing as you had been climbing the tower for most of the year. However, I wasn't expecting you to take a stand before me."_

" _That wasn't all me,"_ Hamuko argued.

" _I am aware of the power of the wild card now. What you did was nothing short of a miracle. Using the power of the bonds you made to stop my descent and end the Dark Hour. I have been thinking about that day all this time."_

" _You have?"_ Hamuko asked more for confirmation's sake. The girl wondered why the bringer of the end was still thinking about their confrontation when it had been already so long ago. Hamuko herself wasn't so fond of remembering that day, mostly because the attacks Nyx had launched at her had hurt. A lot.

" _Indeed,"_ Nyx confirmed. _"Talking with you about human society, their accomplishments, their failings, has only increased my curiosity to watch humans from up close. I wish to know why so many carve for the end of days and how so few managed to prevent it from happening."_

" _Er… that'll be hard. Sorry, but I don't think it would be a good idea for me to move away. You know Erebus, wish for death and all that good stuff."_

Hamuko could hear the equivalent of an adult woman chuckling inside of her head.

" _Don't worry. I am aware of the consequences of Erebus reaching me. In fact, I have also been thinking if there was a possible way to free the both of us, without any consequences."_

" _You did?"_ Hamuko was baffled. She heard the equivalent of a human scoff inside of her head.

" _Of course, I did. As good as a company as you are, I do not enjoy being locked up somewhere against my will."_

" _Oh… makes sense…"_ The wild card was sure if this had been an anime, the seal would have sweatdropped. _"But how would we do that? It's not like we can fight off Erebus. He'll just be reborn in a year, two at most. And then there's the problem with the lack of a body for me. In Japan, we usually burn the bodies of the dead one or two days after they died. And even if we didn't do that, my body would have decayed to the point where it would be uninhabitable for my soul now. Wait, does that mean I would technically be a ghost?"_

Nyx didn't answer the question. _"Creating a body to inhabit is child's play for us gods and goddesses."_

" _Really?! Well, I guess it makes sense. Gods are kinda supposed to be those things that humans cannot even begin to comprehend and stuff,"_ Hamuko thought more to herself than to Nyx. _"What are you gods actually capable of?"_

" _Listing them all here would take a lot of time."_

" _We do have eternity, you know?"_

" _Yes, but what if we could spend this eternity in your world, rather than here?"_

Hamuko fell silent upon hearing that coming from Nyx. It didn't sound like it was a hypothetical question, nor did the tone of the goddesses' voice indicate that she was joking. The mother of all shadows took this as her cue to continue.

" _Right now, your soul is separating me from Erebus, using the power you have acquired over the year. Due to your limitations as a human, you had to use all of your life energy to create this seal. But what if you were not human? Or to be more precise, what if you had a body stronger than that of any other human? What if this body was strong enough to contain not only me but yourself as well?"_

" _You sound a lot like a demon that is trying to make me sign a shady contract,"_ Hamuko noted in a dry tone. _"Look Nyx. I'm not stupid. I can already guess where this is going. The two of us would live inside a body you would create, with my soul still acting as the seal, correct? Sorry when I say it sounds too good to be true."_

" _You're not trying to get your hopes up, I see."_

" _I have just accepted a long time ago that this is the only way. Sure I miss my friends and I would love to be alive again, but still, I am happy with how things are."_ The wild card sounded genuine.

" _You're an odd human, Hamuko Arisato,"_ Nyx commented. _"Anyone else would have jumped at the opportunity to have a second chance in life. Then again, you're hardly anyone else. You're right with one thing: it wouldn't be so simple."_

There was a small pause.

" _For this endeavor to even have the slightest chance of succeeding, we would have to combine our powers to make a second miracle happening. Additionally, you would have to forsake your humanity."_

" _Forsake my… humanity? Okay, now you have me scared,"_ the messiah admitted.

" _If you were to accept my proposition, your role would be twofold. Your soul would continue to act as the seal, separating myself from Erebus."_

" _And my body?"_ Hamuko asked with wariness entering her voice.

" _Your body would fulfill the same role, as he did when he was infused with the Arcana Shadows. It would be inevitable for the thirteen Arcana to merge with you if we were to endorse in this endeavor. Simply put, the result would be of a new Avatar being born into the world of mortals. You would become the new harbinger of the end."_

That was a bombshell Hamuko should have seen coming from a mile away, but it still took her completely off guard. She was shocked into silence, as Nyx' words echoed inside of her mind. She knew if Nyx' words were true that there had to be some catch. But if she interpreted the words of the goddesses right, it would mean that she would be the one who would inevitably bring the end to humanity. Of course, if this were the case, it basically would mean she'd become immortal until the universe died. This by extension brought a new set of problems with it. She'd outlive her friends, she'd no longer be human, she'd have to kill other humans at some point. That's not to mention from the way Nyx said all of those things, there wasn't even a guarantee this all will work with a 100% success chance.

" _I know asking you this is probably pointless, but are you fucking with me right now?"_

" _I assure you, I am not jesting. I cannot say with certainty that it will work, nor can I even predict all of the consequences a combination of our powers would bring with it. But as you have already guessed, you will live for as long as your role has been unfulfilled. I can easily create a body that will look exactly like your old one, but you will only appear to be human. You will outlive everyone you meet, inevitably putting a heavy strain on your soul. Do you believe you can handle the thought of watching countless companions come and go without the end being in sight?"_

This was obviously a decision Hamuko could not take lightly. She had to seriously consider if the benefits outweigh the risks or vice versa? On the one hand, everything would be fine if she just stayed here for the rest of eternity. And like she previously mentioned, she had long made peace with herself, knowing that she would have to leave her friends behind. On the other hand, the possibility of seeing her friends again and maybe even reuniting with her lover, those were two baits with which you could get the wild card to sign a contract with the devil himself. After which of course she would shoot the devil in the face.

Hamuko mentally chided herself for getting even slightly distracted. This was a serious decision she had to make, where for once she couldn't just take things lightly and make her choice on a whim like she did when joining SEES or signing the contract or pulling the lever on the train or deciding to fight Nyx or praying to get smarter instead of studying or…

Hamuko would have blinked if she still had eyes. _"Wow, I'm pretty reckless, aren't I?"_

XIII

No one can escape time.

It delivers us all to the same end.

You can't plug your ears

and close your eyes.

And so it begins…

XIII

When Hamuko came to her senses, the first thing she noticed how every muscle inside of her body was aching and complaining to her brain that they had been overused or something. The girl groaned in pain, as she slowly uncurled herself in her lying position and started rubbing her sore limbs.

"Damn it, why do I feel like I've been crushed by a truck?" the girl asked to no one in particular, before stopping entirely in her movement. She just remained there frozen in her half ball position of sorts, before, after a few seconds, she squealed in delight and got on her feet in less than a second.

"Wohoooooo!" she screamed, pumping her arms into the air. "It worked! It actually fucking worked! I'm alive! I'm fucking alive! Eat shit death!" Hamuko proceeded to point both middle fingers into the sky.

" _You are aware you're technically insulting yourself, right?"_ Nyx asked in amusement, causing Hamuko's eyes to widen in realization for a second, after which she sported a sheepish grin.

"Whoops, forgot about that part," she said while scratching the back of her head.

" _Speaking of awareness, I think you should take a closer look at your surroundings."_

"Huh?" Hamuko did as Nyx told her and looked around. It only took a moment for her to realize that something was off. For one she could barely see any further than an arm's length. This was because a thick fog was covering her surroundings, making it scarcely possible for her to see the street she was standing on. There was also something strange about the mist, namely the color. For some reason, the fog had a yellowish tint to it.

"What the hell?" Hamuko spoke aloud, her cheerfulness draining faster than an open bottle that had been turned upside down. "What the hell is going on? Why is the fog yellow?" Hamuko looked down and inspected the road she was standing on a little more. It appeared to be in rough shape, but there was nothing else she could make out. Looking up, the girl couldn't even make out the sky.

"Something is seriously wrong here. Or is this some sort of climate phenomenon?" the girl wondered aloud.

" _I highly doubt this is natural,"_ Nyx voiced her opinion. _"This entire place feels somewhat off. I cannot describe it in greater detail, but something is aloof. That much I can tell."_

"Aloof?" Hamuko asked confused before a terrifying thought entered her mind. "H-Hey, Nyx! This isn't like one of those consequences you spoke of is it?! We didn't accidentally break reality! Did we?" The last two words were spoken with much worry. To the former wild card's relief, she could feel Nyx mentally shaking her head.

" _No, this isn't our doing. Rather someone or possibly something else's. As I said, I cannot say who or what is responsible for this, but I am sure it is not something man made. For one, I can feel the presence of shadows nearby."_

"Shadows?!" the former high school student repeated alarmed, looking around frantically. However, due to her lag of vision, she wouldn't be able to make out any enemies, before they got too close.

" _Do not fret. The shadows won't attack you unless you provoke them in some fashion."_

"What makes you say that?" the girl asked, her body still tense.

" _Have you forgotten? You're now something akin to a shadow,"_ the goddess explained. _"They will see you as one of their own, even though you're more than them. However, Shadows do not lack a self-preservation instinct and will fight back, if you decide to engage them."_

"Wow, that's a lot to take in," Hamuko commented. "Then again, be now I'm used to all kinds of crazy shit happening to me. So," the girl clapped her hands together "if this isn't normal, is it something similar to the dark hour? Will the fog disappear after a set amount of time and people start appearing again?"

" _I am currently lacking information in all of those regards. For now, we should explore and gather as much information as we can."_

The girl crossed her arms. "Easier said than done. I can barely see my feet. Oh hey, I'm wearing my high school uniform!"

" _A little perk that comes with being dead. When the body dies, the soul will automatically recreate the last things its former body has worn in the afterlife. It is purely instinctual and in all actuality unnecessary, as a dead soul usually disappears after a set amount of time."_

"That's interesting. I guess you know a lot about this afterlife stuff because you're the mother of death?"

" _Correct. Since your soul wields far greater power than any other human, my theory is that it was capable of generating real clothes."_

"Better than running around naked. Still, I'll be running around like a chicken without its head, if the fog does not clear."

" _I might be able to help you in this regard."_

All of the sudden Minako felt something rising from within her. It heavily reminded her off whenever she called out one of her personas, though it felt ever so slightly different this time. The feeling vanished just as quickly, though as it disappeared, her vision all of a sudden cleared.

" **Wowzers! What was- What the fuck is wrong with my voice?!"** the girl shouted in anger and slight fear. Her voice sounded distorted and had taken on a deep bass undertone.

" _Ah, my apologies. I infused you with a tiny amount of my power. It seems this is a slight side effect, a kink if you will. I will work on it in the future."_

" **Phew, don't scare me like that. But thanks, a lot. Now I can actually see where I am."**

And seeing she did. The fog wasn't completely gone, but at least now her vision was more akin to a light fog covering the area. The new avatar noticed first that she was in the middle of a town of some sort. In the shadowy distance she could make out some buildings, but only their outlines. She was surrounded by a lot of different shops. A pharmacy, a textile shop, a barber, further down the road was a gas station, to her left was a shrine and there were even some vending machines on the side of the road. All of this could be considered relatively normal if it weren't for the fact that everything looked like it was about to collapse.

Shutters were down and rusty, the shrine looked like it was about to collapse under its own weight, the leaves on the trees were brown and overall Hamuko got the feeling she had just landed in a ghost town. But that wasn't all of it.

She noticed that everything appeared to be tinted in red light, like as if someone had put a filter in front of everything. The answer to that particular mystery lied in the sky. Instead of a pure blue sky with white clouds, the atmosphere was a red and black vortex. Looking down at her shadow, it too was a red and black vortex, instead of being a black outline.

" **This kind of reminds of my first time experiencing the Dark Hour…"** the girl muttered. **"And that voice will take some getting used to."**

" _What a peculiar place. It certainly looks like a human-made settlement, but I have my doubts regarding that."_

" **I'll look around for a bit. Maybe this is something like Tartarus, you know?"**

" _Hmm…"_

Hamuko decided to walk down the street at a slow pace, allowing herself to take in the surroundings. She was wary of any potential shadow jumping out of the many buildings and ambushing her. Human or non-human, the avatar simply had spent too much time fighting shadows. Her instincts didn't allow her to take down her guard.

She didn't walk for long until something caught her attention. There was a liquor store that stood out a little bit. Where usually the door would be was a red and black vortex inside the doorframe. It was the same as the sky.

" **This might be worth checking out…"**

Hamuko didn't feel anything as she passed through the vortex. Indeed it could be compared to walking as if there was nothing. Inside the store, the fog changed color. It was now blue, which was more fitting to the inside of the store. However said inside turned out to be a mess. The cash register had been flattened, bottles and boxes alike had been smashed and were lying all over the place, alcoholic drinks had been spilled over almost the entire floor, causing quite a stench to be in the air.

" **Damn. It looks like a tavern brawl happened here. Did somebody get attacked here?"**

" _It's hard to tell. But I doubt we will find anything useful in this mess."_

" **Hmm, let me just check this out…"**

Carefully dodging the broken glass and making sure she didn't accidentally slip on the wet ground, Hamuko walked over to the cash register or what was left of it and checked its contents. There was nothing inside.

" **Damn, some money would have been nice,"** the girl huffed and turned on her heels. She was about to exit the building when something shimmering on the ground caught her attention. The girl looked down and almost slipped on the liquid, as she was quite taken aback by what she was seeing. The crystal clear alcohol showed a reflection of her face. It looked just like she remembered her face being with the only difference being the yellow, glowing eyes.

" **Another side-effect?"**

" _It appears so. We should ignore it for now and find some clues."_

" **You're right. This can wait."**

Hamuko walked out of the liquor store, once again passing through the weird vortex. Outside the avatar contemplated where she should investigate next. There were quite a few buildings for her to check out at this place. However, before she could make a decision, she suddenly heard the scream of a male voice.

"Look! Over there!"

Slightly startled, Minako turned towards where the voice came from. She was considerably surprised when she saw three teenagers and a bear costume (?) standing further down the road. It appeared as if the fog wasn't affecting their vision, as one of the teenagers was pointing directly at her. There were two boys, one girl and that freaky bear costume.

The bear costume had blue fur on top, with the face having human skin color. The eyes looked like they were plastic ovals filled with a black, round object. The main body was red on the sides with a white line in the middle and three red dots were going from top to bottom. The feet were blue. Hamuko sweatdropped, wondering why and who was wearing the bear costume.

The boy pointing at her had brown, short hair, which was a little longer on the sides. He wore some kind of black school uniform. The top button on his uniform was opened, revealing a white shirt with a red outline. The only other thing standing out was the boy's headphones hanging around his neck.

The second boy wore a similar uniform and had no outstanding features, aside from his silver hair, which was kept very short and tidy. He had, however, hanging a sheathed sword from his belt!

The girl was wearing a school uniform as well, although she appeared to have modified hers a little. She wore a green vest with yellow stripes. Hamuko could even make out some buttons attached to the vest. She had a short bobby haircut and the color of her hair was a slightly darker brown than that of the boy.

Aside from their school uniforms, those people had another thing in common. They all wore glasses, which was a funny coincidence in Hamuko's opinion.

" _People. Maybe we will get our answers sooner than I anticipated."_

" **I think my voice and eye color might be a little off-putting,"** Hamuko thought back. **"But I won't be able to see them if we just turn it off. Oh man, it's gonna be another one of those days."**

The group, including the bear, which made some funny sounds with each step he took, ran up to the avatar and closed the distance fairly quickly.

"Who are you?" The brown-haired boy spoke up before the group even came to a stop. "What are you doing here?"

 **"Huh...?"** Hamuko was still taken aback by the fact that there was a dude or chick inside a freaking bear costume, so she didn't manage to produce an answer right away.

"Were you thrown in here too?" The only girl in the group asked.

 **"Thrown in?"** Hamuko asked, getting only confused.

"Guys, wait. Look at her eyes," the silver-haired boy said, his voice being surprisingly calm, yet at the same time on edge.

"Huh?" the brown haired duo looked at each other for a moment, before looking at Hamuko again.

"Hey, you're right! It's like what happened to us!" the girl in green exclaimed.

"W-wait, but doesn't that mean she's someone's shadow?!" the brown haired boy asked.

"It must be the case," the bear all of a sudden spoke up, his mouth moving and all.

 **"Whoa, the hell?! The costume can talk?!"** Hamuko exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey! That's a very rude thing to say. I am not a costume. I am Teddie," the now dubbed Teddie introduced himself.

"Dude, you're literally a walking, talking bear costume," the brown haired boy told his companion with an unimpressed voice. Hamuko couldn't resist the urge to facepalm.

 **"I have officially seen it all..."** she muttered. Then she remembered the words the brown-haired boy said earlier. **"Hey! What do you mean I am someone else's shadow?!"**

"Isn't it obvious?" the girl in green asked. "The yellow eyes, the distorted voice..." she pointed out.

 **"I don't get it,"** Hamuko answered with a frown. **"Yeah, I kind of get my eyes and voice are a little... off today? Okay, I definitely could have come up with a better excuse there."**

 _"Why not simply tell them the truth?"_ Nyx asked.

 _"I'm still trying to get a grasp on the situation here. I don't know who they are, where we are or what the hell is going on in this town. Plus so far, those three have been pretty confusing."_

"Have you seen anyone that looks like you?" the grey-haired boy asked. "Someone who doesn't have a distorted voice or yellow eyes?"

 **"Er... nope,"** Hamuko crossed her arms. **"Why would there be another "me" here? What is this place anyway? Looks like some sort of shopping street or something, I dunno."**

"Huh? How can you not know where you are?" the brown haired boy asked. "You're one of them, so you obviously gotta know what is going on."

Hamuko got slightly irritated at that statement but managed to keep her composure. **"One of them? Could you please speak more clearly what you're talking about? Okay, how about this, let's start with introductions first. I'm Arisato Hamuko."**

"Now it's trying to hold a conversation?" the girl asked.

"Don't look at me, I'm just as confused," the same hair colored boy replied.

"I'm Narukami Yu," the grey-haired boy introduced himself, seemingly ignoring his two companions.

"Dude, why are you talking to it?!" the other boy shouted.

"Obviously Sensei has much more manners than you Yosuke," the bear spoke to Yosuke.

"Dude, not now."

 _"Well at least I got three names now,"_ Hamuko thought to herself. She considered waiting for the girl in green to speak up, but seeing as everyone was tense and one of them had a freaking sword with them, while she remained unarmed, she guessed that the best course of action was to continue with the conversation.

 **"Alright, Yu-san it is. You four seem to know a lot more about this place than me. For starters, you asked if there was another "me" running around, only without the eyes and weird voice. Would please kindly explain to me what exactly you mean by that?"**

"Huh? But aren't you somebody's shadow? Shouldn't you know this stuff already?" the yet to be named girl asked.

Hamuko took in a deep breath, in order to not lose her cool. **"Like I said I have no idea what you're talking about. As far as I am concerned, there is only one "me" here and no one else."**

"Only one you...?" Narukami spoke slowly as if he was contemplating something. "You say you have never met someone without those eyes of yours?"

 _"Grr, I'm gonna lose it if I don't get any answers soon. Ah, that's it! Nyx can you undo the eyes and voice for just a second?"_

 _"They will be suspicious afterward,"_ the goddess pointed out.

 _"They already are. I'll just bullshit my way through it. I'm good at that."_

 _"If you say so."_

"Whoa!" All four of the party exclaimed when they saw Hamuko's eyes return to her normal color.

"Happy now?" the girl asked. "God freaking damn it, I can barely make out you guys like this. How can you see through all of this fog?"

"Wait! Hold on! I said wait a second!" Yosuke frantically waved his arms around. "What's going on here? First, she's a shadow, now she's not a shadow, what the heck is going on here?!"

"Hey, that's what I want to know!" Hamuko retorted but sighed afterward. "Ngh, this fog..."

"Hey... so... is she a shadow or is she not a shadow?" Chie asked.

"I'm at a loss, too." Teddie frowned. "She smells like a person, but that's how Yosuke's and Chie's shadow smelled too. It's hard to tell what is going on here. Oh," Teddie grabbed his head and shook his entire body "when did my world start becoming such a mess?"

"Your world?" Hamuko repeated with a raised eyebrow. "I think I'm starting to get a headache..." the girl put a hand on her forehead.

"Let's all calm down for now and try to sort this situation out. At this rate we'll only continue to talk past each other," Yu said with a raised voice, in order to get everyone's attention.

"Fine by me," Hamuko agreed. "And maybe we'll finally get somewhere."

"Ah, guys!" Teddie's eyes appeared to shrink and he began shivering.

"What is it now?" Yosuke asked annoyed, turning towards his companion.

"The shadows!" Teddie screamed. "They've found us! And they're directly coming for us!"

"What?!" Yosuke and Chie exclaimed. Yu's expression turned grim and he unsheathed his sword.

"Where?" the grey-haired boy asked. Teddie turned around and pointed with his finger in the direction he and the others just came from. Yosuke and Chie also turned in that direction, with Yosuke taking two short knives out of his pocket, while the girl took on some kind of fighting stands that was unknown to Hamuko.

"There they are!" Yosuke exclaimed pointing with his knives into the fog. Nyx was helpful enough to allow once again Hamuko to see through it. The incoming shadows were pretty much an unknown to Hamuko. Of course, no one could expect her to remember all of the different shadow variations she has ever met. It was just that she had never seen this particular form of shadow. They were mouths, flying mouths with gigantic tongues sticking out and they came flying towards the group.

Teddie was smart enough to run away a fair distance. Hamuko considered following him, but then something on the ground caught her attention. It was a long, rusty pipe and it looked like it had come off from one of the buildings.

 **"Not much,"** the girl muttered. **"But it'll have to do."**

She picked up the pipe and took on her usual battle stands.

"Wait, you're fighting with us?!" Chie exclaimed.

 **"Focus on the enemy,"** Hamuko told the girl, her voice carrying the authority of a leader. Chie was startled by that tone but returned her attention to the shadows nonetheless. Just in time too, as they were almost in striking range.

"I smell four enemies! Be careful!"

"Four?! But there's only three!" Yosuke shouted back.

Hamuko was immediately alarmed and on sheer instinct alone she turned around. Her instincts proved to be right this time, as there was a fish-like shadow made of colorful paper, approaching them slowly. It completely ignored the fact that Hamuko had found it.

 _"Shadows will ignore you unless you attack one of their kin,"_ Nyx repeated.

 **"Let's see if I still got this."** Hamuko ran up to the unaware enemy and swiped her pipe down as soon as she was in reach. She hit the shadow on the head, sending the creature flying a few feet away until it crashed into the ground.

"Hammy-chan knocked down an enemy!" Teddie cheered from the sidelines.

 _"Is that bear talking about me?!"_

"Izanagi!" The all too familiar sound of glass shattering caught Hamuko's attention. Turning her eyes away from the shadow, the avatar turned around and saw a blue mist surrounding Yu. Behind him rose a humanoid figure in black clothes. It stretched out its body and unleashed a zio spell on one of the attacking shadow. Said shadow was hit mid-charge and lost its flying capability, causing it to roll over the ground.

"A persona?!" Hamuko exclaimed.

 _"Now this is interesting,"_ Nyx commented.

The persona, Izanagi, disappeared as Yu readied his blade and slashed the incoming shadow downside up, causing it to disappear in a black mist.

"No one stands in Sensei's way," Teddie proclaimed proudly.

"This has some thick skin," Yosuke complained, as he kept on slashing the shadow in front of him. His attacks were sloppy and he was obviously not used to wielding his weapons, but his onslaught had the side-effect of the shadow not being able to counterattack.

Chie in the meantime was jumping in the air and attempted to kick the shadow. However her opponent managed to time its attack just right, so it licked her before her boot could connect.

"Ah!" the girl screamed, as she flew backward and landed on her butt. "Ow..." The girl however immediately managed to jump back up. In this timeframe, Hamuko had closed the distance between herself and the licking shadow and slammed her "weapon" down on the thing. There was a clanking sound before the shadow disappeared in a black mist.

 **"One less,"** Hamuko announced. Communication was very important on the battlefield, given that only the support had a good overview of everything.

"Got one," Yu shouted and Hamuko heard the familiar sound of the black mist disappearing.

"Aah, it got back up! Hurry and beat it!"

Teddies warning came just in time. Hamuko turned around and saw that the fish was swinging its tail in her direction. The avatar jumped backward, raising her pipe. The sharp tail end of the shadow slashed through the rusted metal like a hot knife through butter.

"Come Jiraya!" Yosuke shouted and once again glass shattering could be heard. A strong, concentrated gust of green wind hit the shadow, causing its body to destabilize and disappear.

"Great work, guys!" Teddie shouted and ran back to the group.

"Urgh, why do those guys have to lick me..." Chie complained.

 **"Are you sure you're alright?"** Hamuko asked. **"You're not bruised underneath or anything?"**

"Uh... no. I'm fine." Chie opened the zipper on her vest, revealing that she was wearing a chainmail underneath her clothes.

 **"Smart thinking. Though, where did you get that?"**

"Let's save up the questions for later," Yu intervened while sheathing his sword. "There is a lot we have to discuss, but we should do it at a safer place. Let's walk back to the entrance and talk there."

"If you say so," Yosuke replied.

"Alright, lead the way."

XIII

 _"Sheesh, what a way to start my new life. Persona users, shadows, can't I catch a break like ever?"_

 _"I find this a rather fortunate turn of events,"_ Nyx said, clearly pleased. _"If one of them turns out to be a wild card, I may get my answers sooner than I anticipated."_

 _"I hope one of them is a Wild Card. 'Cause, even if I had an evoker with me, I can't use any persona anymore. Speaking off, how did they manage to summon their personas?"_


	2. Chapter 2

The trip to the "entrance" as Yu-san had called it was pretty uneventful and in all honesty somewhat dull. As soon as the group left the shopping district area, the fog became a brighter yellow and the ground just became plain white. It reminded Hamuko of a canvas that had yet to be painted.

" _They will ask hard questions, once we reach our destination,"_ Nyx spoke inside Hamuko's head.

" _Don't worry. You'll see my bullshitting skills in action soon enough."_

As Hamuko didn't have a watch with her, she didn't know how long it took them to arrive at the so-called "entrance." When they finally got there, she found herself baffled. The entrance looked a lot like a TV-Studio. Catwalks were everywhere with headlights illuminating the entire area. A few ladders reached up towards the catwalks. In the middle of the entire area, was a small "island" thing. Three bridges were connected to it, allowing people to get on it. The island ground was checkered in red and blue. A big, black and white target was painted in the middle and for some reason, white shaped people were drawn on it. Three red, old-school TVs were stacked upon one another. And finally, in one corner was an all too familiar blue door.

Hamuko felt a wave of nostalgia washing over her just seeing the door to the Velvet Room. She had to resist the urge to just run in there and give Theo a bone-crushing hug.

" _So this is the entrance of the Velvet Room. Interesting. Then it seems our suspicions of one of them being a Wild Card are correct."_ The goddess commented.

" _Does that mean I will become a Social Link? Ha, it's going to be really nice to sit on the other end of the table for once."_

"Well, this is it," Yosuke said. The group of five formed a small circle in the middle of the platform, to be able to hold a proper conversation.

 **"This is the exit?"** Hamuko asked for confirmation's sake.

"Actually, it's those TVs right there," Yosuke pointed with his thumb at the stag of TVs. "Teddie can summon them... somehow."

 **"...I'm just gonna accept that as a fact before I get an aneurysm. This place is nuts."**

"You can say that again," Chie agreed. "Anyways, now that we're here, I think it's time you explain yourself."

 **"Excuse me?"** the yellow-eyed girl spoke in an offended tone. **""I" need to explain myself?"** Hamuko scoffed. "If anyone owes me an explanation, it is you guys."

"Say what? What makes you think we are the ones who have to explain ourselves?!" Yosuke asked in an angered tone.

"Yeah, Yosuke's right. You're the one that's suspicious here!" the girl in green stated, putting her hands on her hips.

 **"I am the suspicious one here? You're the ones who came to me and started blabbering all kinds of nonsense!"**

"Nonsense?! What do you mean by that?!" the brown haired boy shouted back at the avatar.

 **"You know exactly what I mean. It was when you were saying stuff about there being another "me" around for some reason. Plus there's a whole bunch of other stuff you mentioned, which I can't even put into context right now. And then there's the bear."**

"Huh? What about me?" Teddie asked confused.

"Ah, I see," Yu nodded understanding. "Guys, maybe we do owe her an explanation."

"What? Why are you siding with her all of a sudden?" the other boy asked, surprised.

Yu kept his calm expression, as he turned his head towards his friends and started explaining himself. "We originally assumed she is the Shadow of a person that was thrown in here. However, from the looks of things, something entirely different must be going on here. I doubt she knows anything about what is going on here. Besides, she helped us out in the fight earlier, despite how we acted towards her."

"Mmh, I guess that's true," Chie conceded, although she didn't appear all too happy about it.

"Hngh, not sure I agree with you here, but you're the leader." Yosuke gave his own statement.

Yu nodded towards his companions, before casting his gaze to Hamuko.

"All right, shoot. What's on your mind?"

" _That was way too easy."_

" _So you wanted to make sure to ask questions first, so you could gather information,"_ Nyx concluded. _"Clever."_

" _It was still too easy to convince them or at least their leader to let me ask things first. By all accounts, they should put me through the metaphorical wringer, until they got every last bit of info out of me. They even said I am something unknown to them!"_

" **So first of all, what is this place?"** Hamuko said aloud.

"This is my world," Teddie explained. "Usually only me and the shadows live here. But for some reason, someone has been throwing people into this world and made a beary huge mess."

" **Another world?"** Hamuko asked. **"Okay, I have seen crazier stuff. So, those TVs are the exit. How does one get in here?"**

"That might sound unbelievable, but we can enter this world through a TV," Yu explained.

Hamuko facepalmed. **"Really? No, don't answer that. I'm just going to accept that for now and see for myself. Anyways, what's up with this fog? And how can you guys see through it without using any kind of special power?"**

"Oh, that's easy," Teddie spoke up again. "It's because of the glasses I made for Sensei and the others. As for the fog, it has always been here too. Though sometimes it goes away and the shadows go bearserk when it happens."

" _Are the bear puns going to be a thing?"_

" **Wait, the glasses?"** Hamuko looked at everyone's face. **"I thought all of you were just short-sighted or something. But they help?"**

"Yup," Yosuke confirmed. "We don't know how they work, but then again, there's a lot we don't understand yet. This world for example." He spoke in an uneasy tone.

" **Hmm. Okay, so you don't know all that much yourself. Still, a world inside the TV? I don't know what's stranger that or the shit I have been through."**

"What exactly have you been through?" Chie asked a little aggressively.

" **Hey, I'm not done. I wanna know why you are exploring this place? Oh wait, you mentioned someone throwing people inside here?"**

The others nodded grimly. "Usually only persona users can get in here," Yu explained. "Ah, I think I should explain what-"

" **A persona is a manifestation of one's heart. It's the mask a person wears to face life's hardships."**

The others looked stupefied at Hamuko.

" **What?"**

"How do you know that?! I mean, I never heard anything like this!" the brown-haired boy exclaimed.

" _I did,"_ Yu silently thought to himself.

" **Okay, how about you answer my current question and I'll be happy to explain myself afterward. Does that sound okay to you?"**

The others once again looked at each other for a brief moment.

"Okay, let's make this quick. I'm really anxious to get some answers," Chie stated.

"Basically, only persona users can enter this world. However, we know it is possible for someone to drag or throw into this world who already has this power," Yu explained.

Teddie picked it up from there. "When somebody comes to my world, it shapes itself around the person. The shadows here don't attack normal people, at least not usually. However, as I said, they do go bearserk when the fog exits this world and enters your world." The bear looked down in worry.

"When a person gets killed here, they appear the next day hanging from an antenna or something similar. You've probably heard about the serial murder case going on in Inaba." Yosuke pushed his glasses back in place. "The culprit uses this world to kill people. And right now, we're trying to stop him."

" **Wow, that's a lot to take in at once."** The avatar blinked in surprise. **"Oh man, this situation is nuttier than I thought. A world inside the TV, a bunch of persona users, a serial killer on the loose… What the flying fuck happened to the world?"**

The former human girl took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "This'll take some time to digest. But alright, I guess it's time for me to explain myself."

"If you don't mind," Yu said in a polite tone.

Hamuko crossed her arms. " **Well, just a little forewarning, my story is pretty crazy in of itself. Also, keep in mind that I'll tell you only the shortened version for now. It would take way too long otherwise."**

There was a brief pause.

" **So, do you guys happen to be familiar with the term apathy syndrome?"**

"Apa… what?" Teddie failed to resay the word.

"…No, not really. Sounds pretty sciencey to me," the other girl stated.

"I've heard it somewhere," Yu spoke thoughtfully.

"Ah, that's it!" Yosuke suddenly exclaimed. "A friend of mine in middle school told me about this. Supposedly people would start acting all zombie-like and their skin turns white as a sheet."

" **Pretty accurate,"** Hamuko confirmed. " **Apathy syndrome used to plague my hometown for ten years. So-called experts would say it was due to the increased stress humans experienced in general. But that wasn't the case."** Hamuko shook her head. **"It was the work of shadows. The same ones we fought earlier."**

"Wait, whaaaaat?!" Teddie shouted on top of his lungs. The others added variations of their "what screams."

"Shadows have been in the human world?!"

Hamuko nodded grimly. " **They can't exist in reality as we know it. But those fuckers created a workaround. The dark hour, a hidden time period happening every midnight, in which people turn into coffins and shadows roam the world. Usually, only persona users can experience this time. But sometimes regular humans end up trapped in this hidden time period. And when the shadows get a hold of them…"**

The others gulped audibly at the scary tone, Hamuko's already frightening voice had taken on.

" **They feed on the minds of their victims, making them basically braindead. That was the overall goal the shadows pursuit. The end of all humanity via the apathy syndrome. Luckily,"** she smirked arrogantly **"they didn't expect a certain someone to show up and ruin everything."**

Nyx then witnessed what Hamuko meant with "bullshitting her way through." Her new avatar was telling a massively shortened version of her own journey all those years ago, only she said it in a way as if she was the only persona user there. The former human told the group how she fought huge shadows every full moon, how the number of apathy syndrome victims suddenly decreased after every significant victory. She also answered the occasional question thrown in but refrained from mentioning any kind of details. The only real thing she disclosed was Tartarus, once again telling the story as if she did everything on her own.

"You must have been lonely. Fighting shadows every night with no one else to help you," Teddie said after a while.

" **Yeah, you guys are lucky you have each other. I nearly bit the dust a couple of times. Anyways, the last big shadow turned out to be on top of the tower. The motherfucker had a fun time changing his weakness every other minute or so. Since I'm here, you can already guess that I came out on top. Though… it wasn't without its consequences."**

"Consequences?" the silver-haired boy asked.

" **I… the two of us fired our final attacks at roughly the same time. I got hit pretty hard and was unconscious for months. In the hospital, they told me I was found in front of the school gates. That night there was no Dark Hour. I did it, I won. But… I lost my persona ability afterward."**

The Investigation Team was shocked silent after hearing that statement. Granted they didn't know much about personas as of yet, but at the same time, they couldn't even begin to imagine what they would do without them. For some reason, the mere thought of losing their personas appeared to be the worst thing that could possibly happen to them.

" **Life went on. I took my exams, finished school and moved to a new place just recently. I was busy unpacking all of my stuff when I suddenly tripped over a box and hit my head hard on something. The next thing I know, I am here."**

" _That was some good improvisation. But I doubt they'll simply believe your fantastic story,"_ Nyx gave her opinion.

" _It only needs to sound believable. Most humans can be easily tricked by telling them half-truths. That way, they have a hard time distinguishing when you're lying."_

" _Still, why did you lie?"_

" _I'll… I'll tell you when we're alone. I need to focus here right now."_ Nyx could feel Hamuko's discomfort. The goddess concluded the girl didn't like that she lied to the humans, but still wondered why her avatar did like she did.

" **Come to think of it, now that I heard it from you guys, I probably fell into my own TV.** " Hamuko facepalmed. **"Go me."**

From the expressions on everyone else's faces, Hamuko could easily guess that her story had conflicted them. She didn't blame the high schoolers. It sounded pretty unrealistic for a single girl to take on an army of shadows. The funny thing here was that the actual truth would have sounded even more unbelievable. Who had ever heard of someone coming back from the dead?

"Hamuko-san," Yu spoke up. "Do you mind if my friends and I discuss what you just told us in private?"

" **Go ahead,"** the avatar shrugged. **"Take all the time you need. Trust me, I know how unbelievable my story sounds."**

The others nodded and walked off the platform, where they formed a small circle to discuss whatever they had to address. Hamuko granted them their privacy and leaned against the railing, refocusing her attention to Nyx.

" _This isn't just the work of some maniac, is it?"_ the avatar asked.

" _Naturally,"_ Nyx replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. _"Some other entity must have created this world and is using it for whatever their plan is. However, I cannot even begin to fathom what their end goal is or who "they" are. The only thing I can say for sure is that something is bound to happen. Why else would a new wild card appear here?"_

" _Yeah,"_ Hamuko nodded. _"When I first visited the Velvet Room, Igor mentioned it had been years since he had had a guest. How much time passed since I ended my journey?"_

" _It is hard to say. With you having been my only connection to the outside world, my sense of time has not been the same. It would be in our best interest to enter the real world as soon as possible."_

" _Definitely! I'm starving!"_

In the meantime with the Investigation Team

"It's hard to believe anything she's said," Yosuke stated. "But then again, we're jumping into a TV in order to prevent people from getting killed by their own shadows. Plus, I know the thing with the Apathy Syndrome actually happened."

"So does that mean Hammy-chan is a good girl?" Teddie asked innocently.

"I don't think she means us any harm. However, she's definitely hiding something," Yu opined. "I can't really put my finger on it, but I think she hasn't been completely honest with us."

"What if she is the culprit?" Chie threw into the room. "What if she somehow found out that we're trying to rescue Yukiko and wants to stop us?"

"But what possible motive could she have to kill other people?" Yu asked. "Plus, why did she help us earlier? If she wants to get rid of us, she would have had the chance while the shadows attacked?"

"Maybe she's just cautious," Yosuke suggested. "Maybe she's waiting for the right moment to strike and wants to infiltrate our group? As for the motive, I have no idea," he admitted.

"It still sounds far-fetched," the leader stated. "But I cannot fully deny that it is possible."

"So, what do we do then?" Chie asked.

"We should definitely keep an eye on her. Culprit or no culprit, she's totally suspicious," the "Junes Prince" gave his two cents.

"I agree with that. But what if she turns out to be the culprit?" the girl asked.

"It's three against one. I'm sure we could overwhelm her," the brown haired boy argued.

"Ah, I think I have an idea," Yu threw into the room.

"Amazing, I expect nothing less from sensei," Teddie praised.

"What is your idea?" Chie and Yosuke inquired at the same time.

XIII

" _Hmm, I would argue that the more persona users are here, the better,"_ Nyx told Hamuko.

" _I want to have some backup in case the same thing happens with what the chairman did. Plus, I don't really know how to approach SEES as of yet. I mean, I can't just simply walk up and say: "Guess who's back?" Plus, I have no way of contacting them. Without my old cell phone, I could only look up the number for the Kirijo Group, but I doubt they'd let some random girl speak with their CEO. Maybe when I manage to get back to Port Island, I can meet some old acquaintances, but until then, I think we should focus on getting to know them a little better."_

" _Speaking of them, it seems they're finished with their discussion."_

Hamuko looked up and indeed saw the group returning to the middle platform. Yu walked in front of them, his sword sheath hitting the metal railing every other step.

" **Well, what's the verdict?"** Hamuko asked.

"There's something we'd like to know first before we make our final decision. What kind of "power" do you exactly have?" the new wild card asked.

Hamuko frowned, crossing her arms. **"I am not really sure myself. I discovered it by accident when a shadow attacked me. It… I can use it like I would use my persona. It just… it feels kinda different. Like chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Okay, not really the best comparison…"**

Yu looked back towards his companions, who didn't appear to be too pleased with the answer but at least accepted it for now.

"Alright," the boy nodded. "We'll take you with us. Do you need a place to stay for the night?"

"Oh, no worries," Hamuko waved off, her eyes and voice returning to normal. "As it just so happened, I arrived in Inaba just this morning! I'm sure I'll find my way back home, once we're outside."

"Huh, ain't that a coincidence?" Yosuke commented with a raised eyebrow. He then took out his cell phone and took a look at the clock. "It's getting late anyway. Our families are probably gonna make a fuss if we stay out for much longer." He put his phone away again.

"Alright, let's go home. See you soon Teddie."

"Goodbye Sensei." Teddie didn't appear too happy that he would be left alone.

XIII

The trip through the TVs was interesting, to say the least. Hamuko saw only white, as she was flying through multiple black squares until her feet suddenly landed on solid ground. The avatar almost fell to the ground but managed to keep her balance by instinctively stretching out her arms. Once she managed to get a hold of herself, the former wildcard looked around. She found herself in the middle of an electronics department store, a big one from the looks of it. TVs were staged on multiple shelves all around her, the prizes ranging from affordable to downright outrageous. Hamuko spotted a logo hanging from the ceiling and read it.

"Junes? We're inside a Junes?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yup," Yosuke confirmed. He and the rest of the Investigation Team were standing in front of Hamuko.

"Go figure," she said with a wry smile.

"Come on, we'll go somewhere where we can talk properly," the brown haired boy told her and was about to turn around when all of the sudden he could hear the growl of a real bear coming from Hamuko. Said girl collapsed on her knees and held her arms over her stomach.

"Urggh… fooooood…" the girl moaned.

"Whoa, are you alright?" Chie asked in slight shock and put a hand on the avatar's shoulder.

Hamuko shook her head. "It's evening, right? I think I fell into the TV around 10 o clock. I haven't eaten since before I boarded the train."

The three humans sweatdropped.

"Well, luckily for you, the food court is open for another hour," Yosuke looked in the direction of the place the team usually met. "If you're lucky, they might still have some steak."

"Steak? Oh, now you made me hungry, too!" Chie exclaimed. "All this fighting has taken a lot of energy out of me!"

"Er… yeah," Hamuko looked down dejected.

"What's wrong?" Yosuke asked. "Are you a vegetarian? Don't worry, Junes got you covered."

"It's not that," the former wild card shook her head. "I lost my wallet and a bunch of other stuff when I first fell in," she informed the others. The girl stood up but still had her arms in front of her stomach. "I think it's best if I head home and make myself some noodles or something."

Her stomach growled even louder.

"Whoa. I'm pretty sure they heard that one all the way to the grocery section." Yosuke sounded impressed.

"I'll treat you," Yu spoke all of a sudden.

"Really?" Hamuko looked at the leader, hopefully.

"Sure, it's no problem. We found this rare shadow today that left us with a lot of money."

"A golden hand?" Hamuko asked. "Those bastards are annoying. But the feeling you get when you finally kill them, seeing how their smug grin changes into horrifying despair." The avatar chuckled darkly. "I have had some bad experience with those," she explained upon seeing the perplex expressions the high schoolers had on their faces.

Deciding to leave the topic at that, the team plus Hamuko made their way over to the food court. Yu ordered a steak and two sodas, one for himself and one for his newest acquaintance. Yosuke just took a soda too, saying his mom was going to cook today. Chie ordered steak and pure water. The team went to the same table they occupied earlier today.

Yosuke never thought he'd ever see a girl with worse table manners than Chie, but the way the Hamuko girl was wolfing down her steak, he gained a new perspective in life. The girl seemed to have forgotten that she wasn't the only one present. People even began staring at her. Her uniform got more than a few stains, which she wiped away only after she finished her steak and drank her soda in one go.

"Whoa! You sure got an appetite, Hamuko-chan," Chie spoke up, who was only half finished with her own food.

"Can you blame me? I feel like I haven't eaten anything in years!" Hamuko wiped some leftovers from her mouth, before leaning back in her chair and letting out a content sigh. "This is life."

"Glad to see you feel better," Yu spoke up. "By the way, which school do you go to? I don't recognize the uniform."

"Oh, this?" Hamuko pulled on her clothes. "It's my old Gekkoukan Uniform, from when I was living in Port Island. I accidentally packed all my clean clothes into the boxes, and so I had to make do with that thing here. I graduated already."

"Wait, what?!" Chie exclaimed. "You're our senpai?! Ah, sorry, sorry, I'm really sorry! I was so disrespectful just now!"

"Ah, screw it," Hamuko waved off. "I have been in so many countries where they don't use any of those honorifics, you can call me by my first name for all I care. Besides, I can't exactly be your senpai, when I'm not in school anymore."

"But, if you don't go to school, what do you do then? Shouldn't you be in university then or start a full-time job or something?" Yosuke asked.

"I should," Hamuko admitted. "But after the shit show that has been the 11th grade for me, I decided that after school I'd take a much-needed break of a year or so. Moneywise, I'm covered, mostly thanks to the shadows, really."

"Cool! That means if we fight enough in the TV-World, money won't ever be a problem for us ever again!" the brown-haired boy exclaimed.

"It's dangerous, though," the leader warned his companion.

"Oh, you're right," Yosuke said in a dejected tone. "I lost myself there for a moment."

"That's greed for you," the avatar spoke. "No one is immune to it. I totally enjoyed looting Tartarus of all its money."

"Maybe I should take on a part-time job," Yu mused out loud. "Some extra income wouldn't hurt, given how expensive our equipment is."

"Ah yeah, where did you get this stuff? I needed to find all of my things in Tartarus, and it wasn't always the best quality." Hamuko had not explained how a police officer had provided her with most of the standard equipment, namely because she had no idea how to convince the humans that she just stumbled upon an officer who sold her medieval weapons and armor.

Instead of answering, Yu took out his cell phone and grimaced, when he saw the time of the day. "Sorry, but I really should head home now. We'll talk more tomorrow. Can you come to Junes around after school time?" he asked the avatar.

"Uh..." Hamuko tilted her head. "I should. I don't have anything planned and unless I get lost on my way here."

"Alright, then we meet after school tomorrow here at Junes and fully explain to Hamuko-san what is going on."

The other two humans nodded.

"Alright," Chie finished her steak and got up. "I'm gonna go home now. I seriously need a shower after today."

"You need a shower? After one fight?" Hamuko asked.

"We've been exploring that world all day," Yu explained. "Teddie picked up your scent after we decided to head home for the day."

"My scent? Oh yeah, he did "smell" those shadows," Hamuko remembered and then let out a sigh. She stood up and stretched her body. "I think I'm going home, too. After not having to deal with shadows for so long, I have gotten rusty. I better catch some zees. See you tomorrow." Hamuko waved with her hand and went for the exit.

"Uh, the exit is that way!" Yosuke shouted after her.

XIII

 _"So what do we do now?"_ Nyx asked, as her avatar walked down the almost empty street. Occasionally a car would pass them on the road or another person would walk by.

 _"I'm not sure,"_ Hamuko admitted. _"I hoped we would land in Iwatodai where I at least know some people. They could have helped us out and contacted Mitsuru. Or at least given me a temporary home. Now? I guess I gotta improvise somehow. Find a bridge or something where I can sleep."_ The avatar grimaced.

 _"Honestly, have you forgotten who you are?"_

"Huh?" the girl spoke out loud. Nyx in return sighed as audibly as one could do inside the mindscape.

 _"You're the wielder of the universe, the avatar of the night, bringer of the end, the personification of death. You're no longer a mere human or a persona user, whose powers are restricted in any way or fashion. Use these powers. It should come to you as natural as using a persona."_

 _"Powers? Wait, hold it right there!"_ Hamuko stopped dead in her tracks. _"Are you expecting me to rob a bank or something with my powers?!"_

 _"This I leave to you. I personally recommend you use the Lovers Arcana. With it, you can make people do whatever you please and they won't remember anything after the spell loses its potency."_

 _"Say what?!"_ Hamuko almost screamed there. _"You expect me to just go around and hypnotize people left and right?!"_

 _"You humans and your conscience."_ Hamuko was sure Nyx would have shaken her head if it was possible for her. _"If you feel so bad about this, then you can pay your victims back later for their services."_

 _"It's not that easy!"_ Hamuko argued back. _"You're still asking me to violate the minds of people! What's next, do you expect me to give them apathy syndrome?!"_

 _"It's either charming them for a limited amount of time or sleeping under a bridge,"_ Nyx stated as a matter of fact. _"I am simply offering you an alternative solution to our current predicament. If you want to suffer unnecessarily, be my guest. I am feeling rather comfortable up here."_

Hamuko growled audibly and stomped down the road. She tried to forget the conversation she just had with the goddess and only walked around the town for a while. The sun had almost set at this point in time and the street lights turned themselves on. The air was getting significantly colder too.

"Fucking great, why couldn't it be summer?" Hamuko complained.

XIII

Around two hours later, Hamuko got the chance to look at a clock hanging from a local shop, the avatar had somewhat calmed down and adequately thought about her current situation. Her situation was definitely not the best at the moment. She only had the clothes she was wearing, she had no money, no cell phone, no place to sleep, no way of identifying herself and without at least the latter, it would be difficult for her to build herself a new life. Sure she could just go to the police, but either they wouldn't help her or once they found out she was technically dead, they would ask some somewhat uncomfortable questions.

As such, Hamuko was not considering using her powers to get everything she needed. Instead, she could see the logic behind the goddess's words. Still, so far, she hadn't been able to come up with any kind of alternative solution, aside from going into the TV-World and beating shadows until she was loaded again. Not a bad idea, but the TV-World was significantly bigger than Tartarus, as such there was a high chance she'd just get lost.

Being lost in thought as she was, the girl almost didn't notice that she entered a somewhat familiar looking place. It wasn't until she was blinded by a neon light and looked up that she found herself inside a very familiar street. It was the shopping district, the same one she woke up in when she was in the TV-World. There were some differences, of course. The street and buildings were in a way better shape, there was no fog, the streetlights were working and nothing looked like it was about to crumble. There were even some people still walking on the sidewalk.

However, the one thing that really caught Hamuko's attention, as she was looking around the place, was the blue door seemingly floating in mid-air. It was the same one that she had seen at the entrance of the TV-World, the same one she had seen at the beginning of Tartarus and naturally at the back alley of the Paulownia Mall.

The avatar took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I wonder..." Hamuko mused to herself, her feet already moving the rest of her body towards the Velvet Room.

XIII

Nyx watched through her avatar's eyes as the world turned white for a second. When Hamuko's vision cleared, the goddess saw for the first time the Velvet Room she had heard so many things about. The girl, whose body she currently inhabited, had described it as an elevator with multiple doors standing at each side. However, this room looked completely different.

An assortment of drinks and glasses was standing on a shelf in the bottom left corner. Blue cushioned seats were attached to the walls to the right and in front of her avatar. On each side just beneath the ceiling was a row of windows, revealing a foggy outside world. Blue curtains were attached to them. Just above the windows, on the roof was each a row of bright blue lamps. From the middle of the ceiling hung one substantial blue lamp, this appeared to be the primary light source. Nyx also noted how low the ceiling actually was, concluding her avatar must be in sitting position right now.

The goddess and the avatar weren't the only ones present. In the top left corner sat a girl with her legs crossed. She wore some extravagant clothes, to say the least. The girl wore a blue hat, a red choker with a golden lock, a white shirt with a black tie around her neck, a red skirt, white and black striped socks and black boots. She had black hair, slightly pale skin and blue eyes. She was also carrying a bag with herself.

In the top right corner sat a woman with more formal clothes. She wore a blue vest of a sort with golden decorations that reached all the way down to her knees. Also, she had black stockings and blue high heels. Her hair was platinum blonde and tied up, her skin was even paler than that of the girl on the left and her eyes were yellow.

Finally, the man Nyx had heard so much about. Igor was precisely like Hamuko had described him. Bald, with only some leftover grey hair on the sides, long nose, big bloodshot eyes, and prominent eyebrows and wore a simple black suit with white gloves. A blue table with a blue tablecloth was positioned in front of him.

By the time her avatar arrived, everyone had appeared to have been occupied with something. The girl had looked out of the window, the woman had read a book positioned in her lap and the man had had his eyes closed and his back bent over as if he had fallen asleep. After Nyx had heard the sound of a door closing, presumably positioned behind her avatar, everyone present had turned their attention to the new arrival. And everyone had reacted the same when they noticed that it wasn't their guest who entered their realm.

The eyes of everyone widened in shock. The black haired girl appeared confused, the platinum blonde haired woman looked with suspicion at Nyx' avatar and as for Igor himself, he was the one to find his composure first. In fact, it appeared as if he had only allowed for a split second for his, as Hamuko put it, "trademark grin" to disappear. And if the goddess would have known the man, she would have noticed that his grin was more extensive than it had ever been before.

And then out of nowhere, he started to clap, garnering him confused looks from his two female companions.

"Marvelous," he almost shouted "simply marvelous. You even managed to exceed my expectations long after you have fulfilled your contract. I said it before and I will say it again: you truly are a remarkable guest."

For a moment Nyx got the impression that the old man was running out of breath already.

"Guest?" the girl in black asked. "But wait? Ain't Yu the guest here?"

For some reason, her avatar decided to ignore the girl for now and focused her attention on the master of the Velvet Room.

"What can I say?" her avatar sounded sheepish. "Nyx and I got tired of just "hanging around," so we decided to pack our stuff and move out. We kinda missed the mark with our landing, though. Ended up in the wrong world somehow. Luckily for us, we met some nice people who helped us to get out of there."

Hamuko shifted her body a little until she was sitting more comfortably. "It's been a while, Igor. I'm glad to see you're alright."

Igor chuckled goodheartedly. "It is good to see you too, Hamuko Arisato. I am delighted to welcome you back to the Velvet Room."


	3. Chapter 3

"It's good to be back." Hamuko smiled at the long-nosed man. "Sorry if I come here just out of the blue, but I kinda lost my cell phone… along with everything else that I'm currently not wearing." She gave the old man a sheepish smile. "Plus I or rather "we" kind of missed our mark, when we came back. A world inside the TV? And I thought the Dark Hour was crazy enough." The avatar sighed. "Then again, life would be pretty boring without some good old-fashioned chaos." She found herself particularly reminded of the few times she escorted Theodore around her hometown.

"Anyway, enough about that. How have you been Igor? Confusing another Wild Card with your riddling speech pattern?" the former Wild Card asked with a toothy grin.

In response to that particular question, Igor let out a good-hearted chuckle. "I have been well, thank you for asking. You appear to be doing fine as well, considering the circumstances."

Hamuko shrugged. "Been through worse. I'll just have to figure out how to rebuild my life. Considering that I am officially dead, it's not gonna be easy. But hey, I have the rest of eternity to figure something out, so no rush."

The black haired girl eyed Hamuko with a raised eyebrow, probably wondering what the strange newcomer was talking about. The Avatar of the Night noticed the look she was receiving and gave the resident a polite smile.

"Ah, where are my manners?" Igor asked in a rhetoric fashion. "Forgive me for not introducing the others. To your right sits Margaret. She assists me as Theodore assisted you on your journey."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Margaret greeted politely.

"Likewise. Sorry if I'm a bit direct, but are you related to Theo by any chance? You two look really alike."

Margaret closed her eyes and chuckled. "A good guess. Indeed, Theodore is my younger brother. I have heard he performed admirably in assisting you on your difficult journey. Perhaps he is finally growing up."

Hamuko grinned. "I sure hope not. He was a lot of fun to hang around. Even if he was a tad bit eccentric at times." Margaret and Hamuko shared a chuckle. "By the way, where is Theo? I would love to see him again."

Igor answered that question. "Unfortunately, Theodore has other duties to perform at the present time. However, I am sure something can be arranged."

"Thank you," the brown-haired girl nodded to the master of the room. She was a bit saddened at the fact that she couldn't see her favorite assistant at the present time, she cheered herself up at the prospect that she would be able to see him at a later date.

"And to your left we have Marie," Igor introduced the other resident sitting beside him.

"Hey…" Marie waved her hand half-heartedly.

"What's up? Like your clothes, by the way. They look really stylish."

"Uh… thanks?" Marie appeared to be taken aback by the sudden compliment.

"I mean it. You look really good. Definitely better than me." Hamuko looked down at her clothes. "Maybe I should get myself something similar? Oh well, I'll think about it." The avatar returned her attention to the still smiling Igor.

"By the way, I love what you have done to this room. A limousine totally beats an elevator any day of the week."

The old man chuckled at the praise he was receiving. "The Velvet Room adjusts itself depending on the guest we are currently assisting. For you, it took on the shape of an elevator. For our current guest, it is this limousine."

"Go figure." Hamuko blinked. "I actually didn't know that." She put a hand under her chin and thought for a couple of seconds. "Does that mean the elevator basically represented my ascension of Tartarus? If that's the case what could a limousine mean?"

Naturally, Igor didn't answer that particular question. Hamuko didn't expect the man to do so. He only explained the necessary things to his guests. The rest they had to find out for themselves. Although he usually does give a hint here and there, when the guest hit a dead end. However, Hamuko was no longer a guest and this wasn't her journey, so she probably couldn't expect to get even the slightest hint for any questions she might have in the future.

Shaking her head, the girl returned her attention to the master of the room. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat some more, but I gotta keep going. I still have to find a place to stay and I'm probably gonna wander around town all night, looking for a hotel or something."

"A pity, but it cannot be helped," Igor nodded. "Before you go," the long-nosed man waved his hand over the table in front of him. Seemingly out of nowhere a bucket full of ice and a bottle of champagne inside it appeared on the table, along with four champagne glasses.

"I believe for this special occasion a celebration is in order."

XIII

"Wow, didn't know champagne tastes so good," Hamuko commented out loud as she exited the Velvet Room and started walking up the shopping district.

" _Have you never tasted alcohol before in your life?"_ the goddess inside her head asked.

" _Not often. I managed to convince Mitsuru-senpai once to get sake for the whole team."_ Hamuko giggled. _"It was three days before our confrontation with you. I argued that since our time might be over why not let loose for one night? You know, enjoy life one final time."_

" _I see. I think I understand."_

" _Well, some of my teammates were a little bit hard to convince. My wording wasn't the best and some of them thought I was giving up on the last minute. Speaking of alcohol, look at THAT!"_

Hamuko had not been walking for long when she had found something that looked vastly out of place in this district. Right in front of her was an establishment named "Shiroku Pub." Hamuko could hear some relaxing music coming out of the building. Violet curtains hung on the inside, blocking the view as to what was going on inside. Only the glass door had no curtain in front of it. From her limited viewpoint, Hamuko could see a few people sitting at a bar, which was tended by a hefty woman in a red dress. She had her black hair styled upwards, wore heavy make-up, red lipstick and a lot of jewelry.

Curiosity having overcome her, Hamuko decided to go inside and check the place out. The music just consisted of some soothing tunes without any lyrics. Now that the avatar was inside, it was much clearer to hear. There was a statue of a frog sitting on a table with some colored smoke coming out of it. Hamuko could smell a light, sweet scent coming from the direction of the frog. The entire left side had one gigantic fish tank occupying it with a single koi swimming inside. Multiple disco balls hung from the ceiling, reflecting the light into hundreds of small dots.

The few patrons of the establishment appeared to enjoy their drinks silently. The owner of the small pub, of course, noticed the newcomer immediately and gave the girl a patient.

"Ah, welcome…" the owner greeted Hamuko.

"Hello," Hamuko replied and walked up to the bar.

"I turn my store into a nightclub once normal business hours are over," the owner explained. "Have I met you before, during the day?"

"I doubt it," Hamuko replied immediately. "I just moved into this town today and I'm currently taking a stroll. I want to know what this place has to offer."

"I see. Well, I am afraid this is no place for a high schooler, such as yourself," the woman explained. "This is a nocturnal oasis, where adults can escape their daily lives and gather in search of a moment of peace. And I am a butterfly of the night, adorned with gems, who flutters down to bask in this oasis' glow."

Hamuko felt a bead of sweat running down the back of her head. Internally she was wondering if the pub owner herself might already have had a few too many drinks.

"Everything you see and hear here is only a dream. It's a no-no to drag what happens here into the light of day. Remember that."

"Okay…" Hamuko spoke slowly. She looked at the patrons a little closer and judged that from the clothes they were wearing one of them had to be a businessman and the other a housewife. "So… this is a place for people to unwind a little bit," she concluded. "And… it's only like this after normal business hours?"

"Well, if you must know, everyone has a number faces. This," the woman gestured with her hand over her face "is the face I wear during the night. I don't want to hear anything about my other faces. The same goes for any other me you may encounter at a different time…"

The former wild card had to blink several times before the information fully sunk in. "I just had the strangest case of déjà vu," she eventually said out loud. The bar owner raised an eyebrow at the statement but shrugged it off.

"Now then, I enjoy a little chat every now and then, but I am afraid this is no place for a child like you." And with that, the owner turned her attention to the sink and started cleaning up some of the used glasses. Hamuko in the meantime frowned at the last statement.

From a technical standpoint, she had already become an adult some time ago. Her body, however, was technically that of a minor, since Nyx simply rebuilt her old body from back a couple of years ago. It probably didn't help that she was wearing her old high school uniform. She decided that for the moment it was probably the best to leave the establishment when all of a sudden her gaze wandered over to one of the cocktails a patron was happily sipping from. After having had a little taste of that wondrous champagne from the Velvet Room, the avatar of the night all of a sudden found herself in the mood for some more alcohol.

" _Oh man, I probably shouldn't have come in here. This stuff looks really delicious,"_ she thought.

" _This is a good opportunity to test out your new abilities,"_ Nyx pointed out.

" _This again?"_ Hamuko sighed internally. _"I guess I'll have to do it at some point. Just, do me a favor and remind me to write down how much I owe each and every person I… manipulate. I'm not going to be a freeloader for anything."_

" _Suit yourself,"_ Nyx shrugged internally. _"Now, changing your arcana should not be any different from how you changed personas in the past. Using Marin Karin should just be as easy. Maybe even easier, considering the limitation as to when and where you could use a persona."_

" _That easy, huh? Okay, give me a moment or two."_

The question as to how to change a persona or how to use one is something no persona user would be ever able to answer. When Hamuko first gained the persona ability, she just instinctively knew how to summon it. The same went for changing personas. In all honesty, using a persona came as natural as breathing, only it sucked a lot more energy out of the body. As a result of all of that, Hamuko managed to change her arcana from Fool to Lovers a second before her brain even registered it had happened.

The former wild card could feel something shifting inside of her. She shook her head and focused her gaze on the woman still busy doing the dishes.

"Here goes nothing…" she mumbled. In all honesty, Hamuko wasn't uncomfortable with using this particular spell for more reasons than just the ethical once. The problem with those kinds of spells was that in her personal experience they never hit. Unless of course, a shadow was using it, then it seemingly always worked like a charm. Nevertheless, she channeled her spiritual power and released it in the form of a Marin Karin.

The patrons inside the bar were too busy with their drinks to notice the small stream of pink energy quickly flying in the direction of the bar owner. The pink energy seemingly went inside the owner's body through her back, causing the poor woman to tense up for a second. Hamuko bit her lip guiltily as she watched the woman slowly turning around and looking directly at the avatar with pink glowing eyes. Given the lighting of the room, it was barely noticeable, but Hamuko was specifically looking out for this.

Hamuko decided to take a seat on one of the empty chairs and the woman approached her.

"How may I serve you?" the woman asked in a low, seductive tone, causing Hamuko to cringe visibly.

"Just… give me something to drink. Anything is fine," the girl sputtered.

"Of course…" The woman turned around and started gathering some bottles filled with different liquids, as well as a shaker and started filling the liquids into the said shaker.

" _Tell me this is only temporary!"_ Hamuko demanded.

" _I am not Aphrodite,"_ Nyx deadpanned. _"Of course the effect is temporary. You would have to use something far stronger in order to bound her will to yours. Of course, it is not out of the realm of-"_

" _STOP! The less I hear about this shit, the better!"_

Hamuko gritted her teeth, as she could feel the amusement of the goddess flowing over her own embarrassment. It somehow reminded her of a warm shower during a cold winter night.

" _Embrace your desire…"_

" _Oh, FUCK YOU!"_

Hamuko placed her arms on the counter and ignored the amused goddess inside her head for the next couple of minutes. She instead decided to look around the bar a little more, but there wasn't really that much to see. There were a few bottles with stuff Hamuko could only guess what was inside, the businessman was giving her a weird look, probably wondering what a "high-schooler" was doing inside the bar and the music switched to another track.

Eventually, the pub owner brought Hamuko her drink, her eyes still glowing in a pinkish color.

"Is there any other way I can serve you?" the woman asked in a way that sent shivers down Hamuko's spine.

"Is there any hotel I can stay at?" the avatar asked, eyeing the orange and white colored drink in front of her with a critical eye.

"The Amagi Inn." The answer came almost immediately.

"Amagi?" the brunette asked. "Why does that name sound familiar?" Hamuko wondered out loud.

"The Amagi Inn is relatively famous. Especially since one of the two murder victims from the serial murder case stayed at this particular inn."

Hamuko raised an eyebrow after hearing the statement from the pub owner. "Go figure," she commented and tried out her cocktail. The girl's eyes widened as her taste buds were treated to the delicious drink.

"This is good!" Hamuko praised and took a larger sip, before placing her glass on the counter.

"I am glad to hear that," the woman in the red dress retorted.

" _Urggh, why does she have to talk like that?"_ Hamuko wondered.

" _The spell does make the victim fall in love with the enemy. An added side-effect is an increased arousal,"_ Nyx pointed out.

" _If we have to do that, isn't there any other way?"_ the avatar complained.

" _I assume you mean things aside from becoming the leader of a cult that worships me."_

" _Not helping."_

"So, how do I get to the Amagi Inn?" the maybe not a teenager anymore asked the definitely an adult.

"Down the street is a bus stop. The Amagi Inn is the last station for line number 20. The bus comes every hour on the 27-minute mark."

"Hmm…"

XIII

Hamuko turned out to be the only person inside the bus, aside from the driver of course. After "convincing" him that she didn't need to pay for her ride, she took a seat somewhere in the middle and watched the buildings outside the window passing by.

" _At least that guy didn't talk much,"_ the former wild card thought to herself.

" _If you want to avoid this in the future, I suggest you find a way to get a substantial amount of income,"_ the goddess spoke to her avatar.

" _With no legal papers and me having never finished high school? The best I can do is work part-time and that definitely won't cover it. I can fight the shadows in the TV-World and get valuables out of them or possibly cash. But then I am not sure as of yet just how much of my power I want to reveal to the new persona users. And if I go into the TV every day and slaughter shadows left and right, they're going to want an explanation."_

" _I still don't understand why you're hiding so much from them,"_ Nyx replied. _"You have given me your reasons, yet they sound shallow in my ears."_

" _I just want to be careful, okay?"_ Hamuko replied.

The bus halted all of a sudden and the doors in front opened. Hamuko glanced up and saw a lone boy entering the bus. He had short black hair, wore a black school uniform with a small green and red emblem, as well as a green tie. She also noticed a small birthmark under his left eye. His face was a little chubby and his lips just a tad big.

The avatar turned her attention back to the window, figuring it was just some high schooler who visited a friend's house or something. As the bus continued on its way, she didn't even notice the boy approaching her seat, until he placed himself right next to her. Hamuko glanced over at him, wondering why the boy had not taken one of the free seats. She saw that he was glancing at her as well, his head half looking down, while he fiddled with his fingers.

" _Oh great."_ Hamuko looked out of the window, pretending not to notice the high-schooler.

" _What is it?"_ Nyx asked.

" _The dude,"_ Hamuko almost reflexively nodded over to him. _"He placed himself right next to me, he's checking me out, he's nervously playing with his fingers… he will either ask me out or he won't be able to bring out the courage to say anything."_

" _You sound like you're speaking from experience,"_ Nyx pointed out.

" _Been there, done that, asked for a refund. A lot of people are really interested in me because of my eye color. Especially outside of Japan I was this "exotic girl" who half the male population at school wanted to date. One or two of them might have been genuine, but to be honest? I never really thought much about love. Well, that is until I came back home…"_

Hamuko stopped in her mental talk when she saw the boy next to her started shuffling through his back. He produced a silver gaming console, one that Hamuko had never seen before. As the screen of the console lit up, the avatar of the night found herself reminded that she had missed two years of technological advancement. Not only that, but she had no idea how the political situation was if anything drastic happened in the world and worse how many new songs from Lotus Juice she had missed.

" _What kind of machine is that tiny thing?"_ the goddess asked curiously.

" _It looks like a Nintendo DS, but… I have never seen that shape before. Must be a new model or a new version. You remember what I told you about TVs?"_ Hamuko asked. Strangely enough, she could feel Nyx mentally nodding.

" _The overall term for those things is portable gaming console. The screens are similar to that of a TV, only smaller. Unlike a TV, however, you play video games on those things. In a video game, you basically take control of an "avatar" of sorts. There are all kinds of games out there. You could have an adventure in a fantasy setting or a so-called jump and run where your avatar needs to reach a certain point without "dying."_

" _I don't think I understand…"_ Nyx admitted.

" _I'll show you once I get my hands on a console again. I wonder if they brought out any good beat 'em ups in the past two years."_

As discreetly as possible, Hamuko watched the boy play some sort of RPG, as this was a better time spender than just spectating the road all the time. In a strange coincidence, the boy stayed for the ride the entire time, until they arrived at Amagi Inn. Once both were outside, the boy glanced one last time at Hamuko, before he started walking down the road.

"Well at least this time I didn't need to reject him…" she mused aloud.

" _Are you sure he was romantically interested in you?"_ the goddess asked.

"Trust me. I have dealt with his type before. He couldn't bring himself to talk to me, which I am really glad is the case. Okay, so this is the Amagi-"

"Of course!" Hamuko suddenly exclaimed, slapping herself on the forehead.

" _What is it?"_ Nyx asked slightly startled.

"I have been here before!" the avatar exclaimed out loud. "It was with the tennis team! We had a tournament coming up with the local school and stayed overnight at this place! Damn it, why do I remember that little fact now?"

" _I am hardly surprised. If you have only been here once and given how much time has passed ever since you have been here, it stands to reason that you forgot about it."_

While Nyx was talking to Hamuko, the girl had entered the lobby. Said lobby didn't look too impressive. The entire building had a sort of rustic atmosphere to it, given its old design. It at least looked like it was made entirely out of wood, though Hamuko was worried about the safety of fires in this place.

A single woman was standing behind the counter, wearing a black and white kimono. For a few moments, Hamuko could see a worried look on the woman's face. However as soon as she noticed the newcomer in the lobby, she put on a polite mask and greeted Hamuko with a smile.

"Welcome to the Amagi Inn," the woman behind the counter greeted the avatar, who let out a mental sigh.

"Third time's the charm, I guess. Let's get this shit over with."

"How may I-?" Before the woman could even finish her second sentence, Hamuko had released her charm spell and hit the woman dead on in the chest. Said woman was frozen for a moment before she relaxed in her stands and looked with pink glowing and slightly lustful eyes at Hamuko.

"How may I serve you mistress?" the woman asked in an utterly obedient tone.

"Don't call me mistress for starters," the avatar growled, her cheeks becoming slightly red. "I need a room, preferably with a bathroom. Write it down as if I have paid two months in advance, I'll give you the money another time." The brunette's face scrunched up a little bit. "And, please write on a paper how much money I owe the Inn and give it to me."

"Of course, my mistress," the woman replied and immediately walked to the back wall, where a bunch of keys had been left hanging with number tags attached to them.

" _You're dealing with the people you hypnotized better than I anticipated,"_ the goddess of the night commented.

" _Yeah, I'm surprised too. I guess my time as field leader has given me an edge in this kind of thing. Still, I'll be very glad when I don't have to do this anymore. And didn't I tell her not to call me mistress?"_

The woman produced a key and came back to the counter. There she produced a pen and was about to write something down in the guest logbook, but stopped all of a sudden.

"My Mistress, I need your name for our records."

"Oh right," Hamuko blinked. "Arisato Hamuko."

The woman immediately wrote the name down. Afterward, she produced a small paper, wrote a number on it and handed it over to the avatar, along with the key. The new aspect of death raised an eyebrow at what she was seeing.

"That is awfully low for two months," she commented.

"The last person in the room was the murder victim Mayumi Yamano," the hypnotized woman explained. "Only recently the police concluded their investigation in the room. However, we have a hard time renting it to anyone, despite the busy season."

"Okay…" the brunette said slowly. "That's one heck of a coincidence…"

The woman walked up from behind the counter and bowed deeply. "Please follow me, mistress."

"Is this going to be a thing now?" Hamuko asked aloud and followed the woman like she was told to. The brunette barely had any memories left of the Inn, as such when she walked through the silent hallways, it was pretty much like walking through them the first time. She did notice however that most of the rooms had slide doors with no locks attached to them. The avatar frowned and looked down at the key in her hand.

"Why does my room need a key?" she asked.

"Some of our customers prefer to be able to lock their doors for their own privacy," came the immediate explanation. "Unfortunately, all of our rooms without lockable doors have been taken. But, if my mistress wishes it, I can get rid of some of our customers."

"No, no, a room with a lockable door is fine," the girl quickly said, not wanting to find out the exact context of "getting rid of." Who knows what a hypnosis victim could think of?

"As you wish."

The walk through the Inn continued. Specifically, the woman led Hamuko to the stairs, where they headed all the way up to the final floor. Once there the two walked suspiciously deep inside the building until they finally arrived at the room the woman had "rented" to Hamuko. Dutifully the hypnotized victim opened the door and presented the room to her mistress.

Hamuko felt her jaw hit the ground. "Holy hell," she breathed out, as this had to be the most expensive room the Inn had to offer. In total, it was at least half as big as the lounge of her old dorm or at least that was the impression Hamuko got. A big flat screen television had been set up, there was a balcony for her to explore and the bathroom was definitely bigger than any hotel with low or decent pricing usually offered. The avatar looked down on the paper in her hand.

"Are absolutely sure the price is right?" the brunette asked and held the paper high.

"Yes," came the simple reply from the woman with the pink glowing eyes.

"I might double check on that later…"

"Is there anything else I can do for you, mistress?" the woman asked with… anticipation? Hamuko dearly hoped she misheard the tone of the woman's voice.

"N-no, I'm fine. You can go back to work."

"Of course. I wish you pleasant dreams, my mistress." With those last words of devotion spoke, the clerk left the room, leaving Hamuko to her own devices. The new avatar let out a big sigh of relief when she was finally alone.

"Is everyone like that, when they get hit with a charm spell?"

" _I distinctly remember you were singing my prayers, while trying to slaughter your friends in my name,"_ Nyx mused, causing her avatar to groan out loud.

"Please tell me you didn't mean that in the literal sense."

" _Oh, I mean it. Granted I didn't know the lyrics, but your voice took on a wonderful haunting tone. You were really passionate too when it came to end your friends' lives. Indeed, in that short period of time, you were more devoted to me than even Takaya."_

"Don't compare me to that psycho!" Hamuko almost shouted, but managed to keep her voice in check. Angry and slightly embarrassed, she made her way to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. "It was bad enough that before my friends snapped me out, I hit you with a Diarahan!"

" _Truly devoted,"_ Nyx intoned, not even trying to hide her amusement. _"You must have loved me from the very start. Why else would you offer yourself to be my host?"_

"Fuck you…" Hamuko complained. She found an unused brush and some hotel toothpaste at the ready just beneath the mirror. There were also small bottles filled with shampoo, as well as white towels for body and hand. Figuring it couldn't hurt, the avatar quickly stripped off her clothes and took a long shower.

As the warm water comforted her body, Hamuko allowed her thoughts to drift into practical nothingness. It was a similar technique that she used when she was the Great Seal, which allowed her mind to come to a rest. And after having her subconsciousness continually yelling at her for mind controlling the club owner, the bus driver and that poor clerk woman earlier, not to mention the whole TV-World thing, she really needed a break. Nyx remained silent during this time, allowing her avatar to relax.

After the brunette was done, she merely wrapped the towel around her body, after drying it off of course, and walked back into the main room. She discarded her school uniform clothes on a chair and placed herself on a cushion next to the table on in the middle of the room. She found the remote also sitting on said table. Hamuko decided a little bit of TV before bed couldn't hurt and she decided to turn on a random channel.

"In other news, a tragic accident has occurred today inside a small apartment in Kyoto. Apparently, the owner's gas stove had a small hole in one of the pipes and was leaking gas. Other residents smelled the leaking gas and called the fire department. The building was evacuated and during the evacuation, the forty-year-old man was found dead inside his bed. Police found out that the man worked at night as a security guard and thus slept through most of the day. It is believed that the victim died while he was resting."

Pictures of paramedics carrying out a white body bag were shown on the television screen. Passengers were watching the entire scene happening with curiosity.

"Well that's depressing," Hamuko commented and switched the channel.

"-our question! Which of these countries did Napoleon not invade?!" The show host exclaimed in grand bravado. Four possible answers were shown on the bottom of the screen, along with the question.

" _What's this?"_ Nyx asked.

" _A quiz show. People can sign up for it and win a lot of money if they answer the questions correctly. Some shows have special rules. I remember this one for example. You can back out of any question any time and go home with the money you won up to this point. If you answer a question wrong, you lose a lot of the money you already won. There are certain checkpoints, where if you have won a certain amount of money, you will keep it, no matter what happens."_

" _I see. But what purpose does this show have?"_

" _Aside from winning a butt load of cash? Entertainment. People love watching others struggle with the questions. It's also fun to try and get the right answer yourself, see if you would have won."_

Hamuko and Nyx proceeded to watch the quiz for the rest of the evening. During this time the goddess could certainly see the appeal in participating in this kind of thing if only to widen once knowledge in the broader spectrum.

After the show was over, Hamuko decided to go to bed for the night. As she turned off the lights and put herself under the covers, she couldn't help but think about the amount of cloth shopping she would need to do the following day. Not to mention she somehow needed to get her hands on some actual money. Since most shops had surveillance cameras nowadays, it would look pretty suspicious if a cashier would allow the avatar to take the clothes with her without even paying.

" _The first day in our new life. I admit, I wasn't expecting it to get so interesting from the very beginning,"_ Nyx stated.

" _Interesting is one way of putting it,"_ Hamuko replied. _"New persona users, a world inside the TV and on top of that, I am now an all-powerful being that can end the entire human race with a snap of my fingers."_

" _What you can do is unleash my power," the goddess corrected. "The extermination of all mankind is still my job,"_ Nyx corrected.

" _Whatever. This whole otherworldly murder is worrying me. Not to mention the TV-World existing in the first place,"_ the avatar closed her eyes. _"Anyways, let's talk tomorrow about this. I could use some actual sleep, not this shutting the brain off thing I have been doing every now and then."_

 _"Very well. I wish you pleasant dreams, Hamuko."_

 _"Thanks. You too, Nyx. And thanks... for everything."_


	4. Chapter 4

It is surprising how easy it is for one to fall back into old habits. Wake up, wash up, put non-existent makeup on, make a mental note to buy makeup, put on school uniform and go for breakfast. In all honesty, looking back, Hamuko found it quite funny how she acted on her first day after her rebirth. Following some other guests, she made her way to the public dining room, where a small breakfast buffet had been set up. Only after Hamuko had taken her seat and was about to chew on some breakfast did her brain kick back into gear. Holding the bread in front of her mouth, she was frozen in position for a couple of seconds, until she slowly placed her meal back onto her plate and looked down on it.

" _Is something the matter?"_

The voice almost startled Hamuko. She had temporarily forgotten that she was now hosting a goddess inside her body. Technically this was nothing new, as more than a few of her old personas were representations of gods from all kinds of religions. However, Nyx wasn't a persona she had any type of control over. Nyx wasn't a representation created by the human subconsciousness. The goddess inside Hamuko's head was the real deal.

"Nothing," Hamuko replied after a moment. "I just…" She laughed. "I just forgot I am alive for a moment there."

" _A rather odd thing to forget, no?"_ The goddess chuckled.

"Yeah…" Hamuko nodded and started eating her breakfast. "I guess it's only now settling in."

" _How curious. Yesterday it appeared to me as if you were settling in rather well,"_ the goddess opined.

"Yesterday I had other things on my mind. Now, I can finally calm down and… I want to say think, but that's not the right word. I guess what I want to say is, I am only now realizing everything… no, that's not good either."

" _I think I understand."_ Nyx nodded unseen. _"Take your time. Clear your mind. Eternity awaits us. There is no need for rush, my child."_

At this moment, Hamuko could swear she could feel a hand going through her hair, even though she was sitting relatively alone in the corner of the room. Nyx sounded like a mother talking to her child for a moment there and strangely enough, the avatar of the night found comfort in the tone the goddess' voice had taken on.

For a while, nothing was said between avatar and goddess. The former human was enjoying her meal, listening to the chatter of the people in the background, smelling the coffee that had been prepared in one huge can and enjoying the warmth that came from a nearby heater. The saying you don't know what you will miss until it is gone was very accurate.

As Hamuko took a sip from her coffee cup, she started wondering how she was supposed to spend the day. She didn't have to go to school anymore, but the new persona users had to. There would be some time before they could meet up. There were a lot of things Hamuko needed and as much as she loathed the idea, for the moment she would have to steal anything the girl required until she had some income.

Clothes were pretty high on the list of things she needed, along with a notebook to keep track as to how much she "owed" each person or business. Junes immediately came to her mind when it came to clothes. The problem, however, was that Junes was a Mega Store. Naturally, Mega Stores were equipped with cameras. And cameras could not be charmed. Not to mention, the employees would get into trouble once it was discovered that some clothes had not been paid for.

"Never thought I'd see the day, where I found myself planning to commit a crime," she said to herself, taking another sip from her coffee.

There was the shopping district Hamuko had been the night prior. She hadn't taken a good look at the stores, but maybe there were a few things she could find. She would only take what was necessary, naturally, but what exactly was essential at this point? She had shelter and food, although she would have to return to the Inn every time she wanted some. Clothes were a one-time thing if she was careful with them. A weapon wasn't necessary for survival, but at the same time, she didn't want to rely on her new skills alone, especially since she was still new to them. Although, where was she supposed to get a weapon?

And those were only the immediate concerns. Hamuko was sure there were several long-term concerns she wasn't taking into consideration, but they wouldn't come to her mind right now.

"One step at a time," Hamuko muttered to herself, looking down on her now empty plate. "And the current step is, to get me more breakfast."

* * *

Luckily for Hamuko, there were so many students using the boss today that she just fit in and didn't have to do something to the bus driver. The man didn't even check if she had a ticket or not. The new avatar of Nyx stepped out at the shopping district, along with a wide array of students. Some have given her an odd look or two, given that she was wearing a different uniform. But no one bothered to ask her any questions. However, this little scene alone showed that Hamuko was in desperate need of a new wardrobe, else she would continue to stick out like a sore thumb.

" _I don't remember seeing anything that resembled a clothing store yesterday,"_ Nyx remarked.

" _We'll have to look a little harder. There might be something here."_ Hamuko thought back.

" _Why not simply go to the huge building, Junes was it called?"_

" _Junes."_ The avatar shook her head. _"And that's not a good idea. I can charm the employees there, but I can't do anything about the cameras or the cash system they're using. Electronic devices nowadays record almost everything and they will notice if something went missing. And when they do notice, they will check the camera footage first."_

" _Cameras… those record pictures for later seeing, correct?"_ the goddess tried to recall one of the many things Hamuko had at some point or other explained to the higher being.

"Yup," the former student accidentally said out loud. _"Its how TV-Shows are made. Anyway, let's check this place out. Maybe we're lucky and find something here."_

Hamuko didn't bother going to the gas station for obvious reasons. Everything that could be found there was way cheaper somewhere else. Plus, those places never sold clothes, unless you count the warning vests. She found out that there was a bookstore to the left of where the Velvet Room was located. She hadn't noticed it the other day since it had been so dark. But books were the very last thing the avatar had on her mind right now. And she didn't fancy another visit to the Velvet Room, at least not for the moment.

As she was glancing over the buildings, the store to the right of the Velvet Room caught her attention as soon as she saw what was on display there: swords, bows, medieval armor, samurai armor, a spear, it was a weapon nut's dream.

"I think I just figured out where Yu and his friends got their weapons from," Hamuko muttered, feeling a large bead of sweat rolling down the back of her head.

" _Daidara Metalworks,"_ the goddess read the sign overhead. _"My oh my, Hephaestus would certainly take a liking to whoever owns this humble shop. Of course, by our standards, those weapons might as well be kitchen knives, but for human standards, those are truly a work of art."_

" _You tell me,"_ the avatar thought back. _"Just look at the details of some of this stuff! The shaft of this katana alone looks like it belongs in an art museum. And holy hell, look at that samurai armor! This looks like it is the real deal. Although, I wonder. How did Narukami and his friends manage to convince the owner of the shop to sell them weapons?"_

" _Why don't we go in and find out?"_ Nyx suggested.

Nodding to the goddess, Hamuko walked inside. A small bell attached above the door announced her entrance to the humble shop and boy oh boy was the girl in for a treat. In the avatar's mind, this wasn't a weapon shop anymore. This was an armory! Axes, helmets, swords, knives and most importantly a very fine looking naginata that just begged for it to be held by the bringer of the end.

The owner of the shop happened to stand behind the counter, currently polishing a medieval helmet. The man was gruff, about the age of fifty. He had wrinkles all over his face, he was bald, but he still had some hair in brown color. His haircut was odd, as the hair came from behind ears, went down the bangs and flowed together in a mustache. But what stuck out the most was the enormous scar on his forehead.

The man wore a white headband and shirt. Hamuko could see a part of a protective apron hanging in front of the man's legs, no doubt for working. The counter blocked the rest of his body.

"Can I help you?" the owner of the shop asked in a gruff voice.

"Oh, I'm just looking around," Hamuko replied with a smile. "I'm new in town and thought I should check everything out."

"New here, eh?" the man asked. "Shouldn't you be on your way to school?"

Hamuko looked down on her clothes. "That? My washing machine broke down the other day, so for the moment, I'm stuck with my old high school uniform. I actually graduated already and moved from Port Island to Inaba." Hamuko moved closer and showed the man the detailed emblem that belongs to her old high school. "See, it says Gekkoukan High right here. Look it up. It's on Port Island."

The old man huffed. "Alright, alright, I believe you. So, you new here in town? It's nothing like the big city, I imagine."

"Totally different," Hamuko agreed. "But this is nothing new to me. I have been in a lot of places my entire life. Moved from one school to the next almost every year," she told the old man.

"That so?" the man asked, resuming his work on the helmet. "I take it your parents moved around a lot."

"My parents are dead," the avatar explained with a calm expression. Daidara almost dropped the helmet he had been polishing. "I have been moved around due to the system we have. Since I'm an adult now, I can live where I want." She looked to the side and shrugged. "Plus, I finally got to inherit the will of my parents, so money isn't a problem right now."

"I'm..." the smith huffed. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Hamuko gave the man a genuine smile. "It's alright. At least they don't have to pay taxes anymore," she said in dry humor. "Anyway, as I said, I'm just looking around for now. Your shop sticks out from the rest of the bunch, so I thought, why not have a look around?"

Daidara nodded. "Well, take all the time you need. I like it when other people appreciate my artwork, especially young folks like you. In fact, there's a bunch of high schoolers who've been buying some of my artworks for a history project of theirs."

Hamuko's eyes flickered, while Daidara smiled none the wiser. "It's good to see that young folks are still interested in the past. The three of them appear to be quite passionate about it."

"Is that so?" the avatar asked in great interest. "I take it you usually don't sell stuff to high schoolers?"

"Nah." The man was done with the helmet and hung it to an array of others. "Usually it's the museum curators or stage directors who want something or other from me. Occasionally got the one and other weapon collector or dojo. The townsfolk mostly come here for trinkets or kitchen knives. Barely worth my time, if you ask me, but everyone has to make money somehow."

"Yeah. Money rules the world," the avatar replied. "Say, that's a really nice looking naginata you have there. How much does it cost?" she asked, pink energy already gathering at the tip of her fingers.

* * *

Ten minutes and an "IOU" recipe later, Hamuko was semi-happily wandering out of the store with a bag in hand that contained her newest weapon. Daidara also had taken her measurements for future armor.

" _I honestly thought you would be more reluctant to use that spell,"_ the goddess inside of her commented.

" _I just wanted to get it over with. Hopefully, I won't have to use it too many times,"_ the avatar replied annoyed and tried to distract herself by looking around the street a little more. She knew that the bar was supposed to come up soon, but when she arrived at the place where the bar was supposed to be, it wasn't there. What she instead found was a small convenience store called "Shiroku Store."

"Wait, wasn't this Shiroku Pup the other day?" Hamuko asked out loud.

" _Curious. But I believe the owner did mention something the night before. Something about being a different person at night, I believe?"_ the goddess asked.

" _I am not sure if I want to find out the details on this one. I'll ask later. It doesn't look like it has anything we need."_

Hamuko went further up the road, looking at each building she passed. The similarities between this district and the one in the TV-World were even more apparent during the day than at night. The billboard, the Chinese Diner, the small, fast food stand, not to mention the liquid store where someone died. Said store was closed. The sign said it was due to family reasons. A few candles had been placed outside the store, no doubt friends wanting to say goodbye to the dead girl.

Feeling uncomfortable near the store, Hamuko walked to the other side of the road. What there was an old textile shop, seemingly run by an old woman inside the building. She wore a green yukata and had her grey hair tied up in a bun. The sign read: "Tatsumi Textiles."

" _Not exactly a clothing store, but perhaps something useful none the less?"_ Nyx suggested.

" _Maybe,"_ the avatar replied. _"I was part of the fashion club after all. Although, to be honest, it was just Andre and me back then."_ Hamuko let out a sad sigh. _"You know, he wanted to make me a yukata before he had to leave for France. I wonder if he ever finished it. I wonder if he even heard about my death. Barely anyone would talk to him because he had so much trouble with our language."_

" _While I would like to hear more about your friend, you should pay attention to your surroundings. The old woman is coming closer."_

Hamuko snapped back to reality just in time, to see the woman from the store just being a few steps away from her. "Hello, dear. Can I help you somehow?" she asked in a kind voice.

"Oh me? Don't worry. I am new in town and am currently looking around a bit."

"I see. But do tell me, shouldn't you be on your way to school by now?"

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Hamuko just smiled politely and explained her situation with the same lie she told Daidara. "Ah, you see, I already graduated this spring. I just moved to Inaba the other day and was doing my laundry, when out of nowhere my washing machine broke down. My clothes… are kind of a mess right now, not to mention the apartment."

"Oh dear, what terrible luck you have."

"Haha, you tell me. Until I get my other stuff cleaned up, I am stuck with my old uniform. Good thing I kept it."

The old woman inspected Hamuko's wardrobe from top to bottom.

"Still, if you walk around just in those, people will think you're skipping school. Some might even call the police," the woman said with a deep frown.

"That wouldn't be so great, but it's mostly why I'm here in town. Do you by any chance know a place where I can buy clothes without going to Junes?" the red-eyed girl asked.

"I'm afraid there is not much else here. Even before Junes came here, people went all the way to Okkina City for new clothes. Of course, I have my humble store here, but I am more traditionally oriented."

"I see. Thank you for the help, anyway." _"Well, there goes that plan."_

Hamuko smiled wryly to herself, thinking about the next step she was supposed to do. A textile shop was nice and all, but it wouldn't do her any good. She could technically make herself a yukata if she even accurately remembered how to make one, but that would take days at least. Not to mention, a yukata wasn't an unnoticeable clothing piece.

"Say, why don't you come in for a bit?" the woman asked all of a sudden.

"Oh, is that okay?" Hamuko asked. "I don't want to be intrusive or anything."

"Oh don't worry. I have spare time in my hands and it's always so only at the store at this time of the day. I wouldn't mind some company."

"If you say so," Hamuko smiled. "I'm Arisato Hamuko, by the way."

"Oh dear, where are my manners? I am Tsukiko Tatsumi. Nice to meet you, Hamuko-chan."

* * *

Tsukiko led the avatar of the night goddess inside her shop and even brought her some green tea. Hamuko carefully placed her bag into a corner of the room, making sure no casual glance would reveal the weapon inside. Afterward, she sat down on a cushion right next to Tsukiko, who gave Hamuko the teacup.

"So, Hamuko-chan, where are you from?" the old woman asked.

"Port Island," the avatar answered. "I went to Gekkoukan High until March this year. Even before I graduated, I decided I needed a change of scenery. If only I had known my machine would break down, then I would have bought a new one, before coming here."

"Ah, if only, if only. We often wish we could turn back the clock and do something different?" the old woman chuckled. "But this is just part of life, my dear. We have to live with the bad, as well as the good things."

Hamuko chuckled. "Don't I know it?" she asked rhetorically. _"I am talking to you Nyx."_

 _"I am hurt,"_ Nyx spoke back in a mock tone.

"Don't be like that," Tsukiko admonished lightly. "You still have your entire life in front of you, especially now that school is over for you."

Hamuko had a hard time not to laugh at that particular statement. The irony was almost too much for her.

"I guess you're right," she managed to get out in a relatively normal tone.

"So, why did you chose to come to Inaba of all places?" the old woman asked. "I know it is a lovely town, but I am curious why a young girl like you would come here. Most youths nowadays always talk about how they want to go to the big city."

Hamuko shrugged. "No particular reason. There was just a free apartment here, and I managed to get it. Of course, I'm staying at the Amagi Inn for now, until my place is fine again."

Tsukiko gave Hamuko an apologetic smile, after hearing the apparent predicament the former wild card apparently found herself in now. The avatar felt terrible having to lie to the poor old woman like that. Old people were always so susceptible to lies like that and here was Hamuko lying as if it was second nature to her. Of course, when her life pretty much depended on making as many friends as possible, one inevitable became good in the art of using words a certain way.

"The Amagi Inn? I'm surprised you managed to get a room there. It is prime tourist season at the moment. Usually, they're booked out," the shop owner explained.

"I guess I got lucky in that regard. It is a pretty cheap room, all things considered, but everything there is top quality." Hamuko smiled nostalgically. "I found out something funny when I arrived there yesterday evening. I have been in the Amagi Inn before."

"You have?" the old woman raised an eyebrow, taking a sip from her own tea.

"Mhm. It was during my time at Gekkoukan. I was part of the tennis club and we came here for a tournament between schools. We stayed at the inn overnight back then."

"Ah, I see. Maybe you liked it so much here back then, that your heart guided you back here." Tsukiko chuckled, as did Hamuko.

"Yeah, maybe."

 _"All things considered, this might be the case as to why our landing was so off,"_ Hamuko said to Nyx.

 _"I doubt it. You do not have a strong emotional connection to this place. I think it has something to do with the world inside the TV."_ The goddess opined.

"And what are you doing here now? Now that you're finished with school, what are your plans now, if you don't mind an old lady prying?"

Hamuko shook her head with a smile. "No worries. And to be honest, I am taking it easy for the next year." The avatar drank the rest of her tea. "You see... I have been hospitalized for some time."

The old woman gasped. "Oh dear..."

"Yeah, I'm not a fan of the hospitals. The doctors always tell me I overeat," the avatar giggled. "Anyway, between staying in the hospital and juggling school, I decided I needed a break from everything. That's why I looked up a place to stay that wasn't inside a big city complex. I felt the need to get some fresh air after everything."

"And your parents? Are they okay with this?"

There was that question again. The one about the parents. Well, Hamuko had gotten used to this one long before she awakened to her persona power.

"My parents are dead. They died in a car crash when I was six."

Hamuko managed to catch Tsukiko's teacup before it reached the ground. The hot drink got spilled over the avatar's arm, but that didn't bother her at all. In fact, she didn't even feel the heat at all.

"Oh... I... I..." The old lady looked shocked at the revelation.

"It's alright. You didn't know." Hamuko put both cups away. "No one does, so don't feel bad asking."

"But... my god, you poor thing. Losing your parents at such an age..." The old woman put a hand on Hamuko's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry."

The red-eyed avatar simply smiled back at the old lady. "As I said, it's okay. People die. It's just another part of life that is bad, but we have to live with it."

"I... suppose..." the old woman looked down with a guilty expression. Hamuko frowned a little bit, knowing that it was best to change the subject now.

"Hey, tell me, what are you doing here? Well, obviously this is a textile shop, but what is it you usually make here?"

Tsukiko looked up from the ground, giving her guest a slight smile. She knew that the young woman was trying to change the subject, but the old lady didn't mind at all.

For the next half an hour or so, the shop owner told Hamuko as to what she did on a day to day basis. As it turned out, Tsukiko's biggest customer was the Amagi Inn. The old woman was mostly tasked with creating various decorations for the inn, which change depending on the season, upcoming holidays or maybe an event the inn itself is holding.

Tsukiko also made yukatas and other clothing article and once she heard that Hamuko had been part of fashion club, the old lady had been delighted. Hamuko in return told Tsukiko about Andre or Bebe as most people called him and how he taught her everything the girl knew about stitching. Eventually, the conversation led to the French transfer student himself.

"It's a good thing I was in Europe for some time, so I had an easier time understanding him, than most people. Though we had some awkward translation errors on both sides." Hamuko had a blush sprouting her cheeks, thinking about a particularly embarrassing incident. "In hindsight, it's good almost no one else could speak French."

"Really?" the old shop owner grinned. "And why is that?"

"Nope!" Hamuko shook her head. "Not telling. Too embarrassing."

"Oh well," Tsukiko sighed wistfully. "But from what you told me, it appeared as if the young French man was rather smitten with you."

"Oh, he was," the avatar nodded. "He was your stereotypical French man, who flirted with you without even wanting to, constantly making compliments and he sounded like those French actors on TV. And don't get me wrong, Andre is cute and I like him as a friend. But, sadly for him, someone else managed to steal my heart."

The shop owner appeared to be a bit disappointed after hearing that Hamuko and Bebe weren't a thing. However, she was very intrigued by hearing that the city girl had a special someone.

"Really? What is he like?" the old woman asked eagerly.

"Well..." Hamuko fiddled with her hair. "For one he is very protective. Seriously. The first two or three weeks I had trouble meeting up with my male friends because he got so jealous so quickly." Hamuko snorted, while Tsukiko laughed.

"That just shows that he cares about you," the older woman said.

"I know he cares, but it was just so annoying," Hamuko groaned. "I swear he even got jealous when I was playing with Koromaru. And Koromaru is a dog!"

This time the old woman could not hold back her laughter. The thought of a young man being jealous of a dog was just too funny in the shop owner's mind.

"Luckily my best friend jumped in to save the day. Can't say I ever expected Junpei to have a knack for these things, but the more you know." Hamuko shrugged to herself. "Although, my boyfriend still gives everyone the stink eye that appears to be admiring me."

"Old habits die hard," Tsukiko chuckled. "And you're certainly a beautiful girl, Hamuko-chan. Your boyfriend is fortunate to have you."

"Hehe, thanks. I bet you were quite stunning back in your day, too."

The old shop owner chuckled mischievously, before shaking her head. "My golden days are long gone, dear. Nowadays, I try to make other things and people look stunning. Speaking of which..." The old woman stood up suddenly. "Would you mind waiting here for a minute? There's something I want you to have a look at."

"Uh, sure?" Hamuko replied, tilting her head in confusion.

Tsukiko quickly made her way into the back of her shop, leaving the avatar alone with Nyx. The two weren't alone for too long, as true to her words, the owner of Tatsumi Textiles returned just a minute later with some sort of clothing placed over her arm. Upon unraveling it, Tsukiko showed to Hamuko that the clothing was a yukata. It was mainly white but had lilac flowers on it. Green leaves were attached to the flowers through thin green strands, making it look like the plants were growing on the Japanese dress.

"Wow, that looks good," Hamuko commented in earnest.

"Thank you, dear. A father ordered this for his little girl, but sadly the man canceled the order before a few days before I finished it."

"Now that's just rude." The goddess' avatar frowned.

"It's part of the business, dear. Sometimes customers have second thoughts. Well, I didn't want this one to go to waste, so I finished it anyway. I am not sure, but I think you and the girl it was meant for, have the same or at least similar measurements. Would you mind to try it on?"

"Really?" the former human asked in surprise.

"Of course. It would be a waste just to have it hanging around in the closet."

"Alright, if you say so."

* * *

Hamuko had wholly forgotten how complicated it was to put on a yukata, given that there were barely any occasions where she needed to wear one. And buying one for herself? She was an orphan. Before Tartarus money had always been an issue. She always needed to flip every coin three times, before spending it. She needed to save up for her own education, buy books, clothes and other things. The state provided some things, but not enough to have a secured future. Of course, then Tartarus came and Hamuko's bank account exploded.

Not that any of that mattered at the moment. Tsukiko helped the avatar out with securing the yukata, by wrapping a rose-colored belt around Hamuko's waist to secure the yukata. The belt, which was a huge piece of cloth, had pink streaks on the side, to fit a bit better with the overall design of the yukata. Tsukiko knotted it together into a loop, before stepping away and admiring Hamuko.

The former human herself was quite impressed with the work. It was comfortable, it looked good on her and it was indeed an improvement over her old orange yukata, which she bought for the summer festival back on Port Island. Of course, it didn't sit correctly. It hadn't been made for her after all. The sleeves were a tad too long and if Hamuko would take even a few steps, chances were she would trip over the dress and hit the ground floor hard.

"Wow, I look amazing," Hamuko said, looking at herself in the mirror.

 _"It's certainly an improvement."_

"I am glad you like it," Tsukiko smiled. "Although, there's some need for adjustments," the old lady commented.

"You know, wearing it like this, I really wish this was made for me." Hamuko sighed. "Oh well, too bad, so sad."

 _"You know, you could have it if you really wanted to."_

 _"Excuse me?! Are you really expecting me to attack a defenseless old woman?!"_ Hamuko shouted inside her mind. _"Are you nuts?! I'm not going to sink that low!"_

"Don't worry, dear. Once I have made the necessary adjustments, it's all yours."

"Excuse me, what?!"


	5. Chapter 5

"I can't accept this!" Hamuko argued. "I mean, you barely know me Tatsumi-san! In fact, you just met me today! Why would you give me something, when you have only known me for half an hour or so?!"

The avatar of the night was surprised to say the very least. She had heard of generous people, but this was taking generosity to an all new level. Most people would call what the older adult was doing sheer stupidity. For all Tsukiko Tatsumi knew, Hamuko could very well be just a high school student, who was slacking off.

But the old shop owner just smiled kindly at the former human. "Dear, let me tell you something about me. I pride myself in being able to judge a person's character, simply by getting them to know a little bit. Even a small conversation is enough for me to figure out what a person is like."

Hamuko crossed her arms, unconvinced. "And you're saying that just by talking to me for a little bit, you figured that I am a "good girl" or something? Pardon me, but I think that is instead… foolish to say the very least." The young woman had almost said stupid but managed to hold her tongue in time.

Tsukiko chuckled. "Hamuko-chan, you're not the first one to say that. Why even my son says, I am too nice for my own good."

"And for a good reason. With a mentality like this, you could get tricked very easily," the red-eyed girl argued. The older woman just chuckled again.

"Once again, you aren't the first one to say this. And I cannot say it hasn't happened before. But like my son would put it: I trust my gut with this one." The older woman laughed for a moment. "And right now, my gut tells me that I can give you this without any worries. Besides, this thing would most likely just hang in the closet and collect dust."

"Well, you could sell it again," the young woman argued.

"Easier said than done, Hamuko-chan. I would need to find another person who fits into this. It is a lot harder than you think."

"Well, at least let me pay you for it. I… I don't have enough cash on me right now, so you should keep it until-"

Hamuko found herself interrupted by the older woman raising a hand. "Consider this a welcoming gift from myself to you coming to Inaba. You already have been through so much, what with all the misfortunes following you around. You deserve something nice." The woman's smile never wavered.

"B-but-" Hamuko stuttered. She was almost stunned to silence at the sheer idiocy the old lady was putting on display. The avatar was in need of new clothing, yes, but that didn't justify robbing an old, helpless and obviously gullible woman like this.

"I just can't… I mean… Let me pay you back somehow!" she eventually shouted. "Do you need help around the shop? With deliveries? Or maybe should I clean your house? I have time. I can come whenever you need me."

Tsukiko Tatsumi laughed heartily as her guest was throwing suggestion after suggestion of payment at the woman. If this didn't make it visible enough that the older adult's gut had been right once again when she didn't know.

"If you insist so much, there might be something I can give you, though it doesn't have anything to do with the shop," the old woman told the younger.

"As long as I can do something," Hamuko nodded satisfied. "I don't like freeloading of others."

" _And yet you're doing it anyway,"_ Nyx spoke in a teasing tone.

" _That's circumstantial! Plus, I'm gonna pay everyone back, once I got the money!"_

" _And it will take how long to get enough?"_ the goddess asked.

" _Let me worry about that! I'll find a way."_

"And people say I shouldn't trust my instincts," Ms. Tatsumi chuckled. "Tell me Hamuko-chan, have you ever tutored someone before?"

Hamuko blinked at the seemingly random question. "Not really, unless you count studying together with friends for an upcoming test. I did help my boyfriend out every now and then. He was an underclassman."

"I see. Well, do you think you would be comfortable tutoring my son? He is a first year and goes to Yasogami High. His grades are…" Tsukiko looked for the right word "less than stellar, let's just say."

The avatar looked down on her arms, thinking. "First year? Should be doable," she muttered more to herself, than to Tsukiko. "It's been a while since I have gone through the material, but I'll give it a try. It's the very least I can do."

"Thank you, Hamuko-chan. How does Five 'o' clock tomorrow sound?" the shop owner asked.

"I should be free. It's not like I have much to do at the moment since I'm basically taking an extended vacation. I can't guarantee I am available every day, but I should be for most."

"Of course," the older woman nodded. "Now then, wait here while I take care of the dress. It shouldn't take too long."

* * *

An hour later, Hamuko was now wearing a perfectly fitting yukata. Her school uniform was now inside the bag, concealing the weapon inside from any onlookers. By far this wasn't a perfect solution, not by any stretch of the imagination, since a yukata would doubtlessly draw even more attention than a uniform.

" _This was quite the lucky turn of events,"_ Nyx commented, as Hamuko was walking down the street.

" _You tell me. That woman is way too trustworthy if you ask me. I don't believe she can judge the character of someone simply by talking to them for a bit,"_ Hamuko replied.

" _Who knows? Maybe she simply has good instincts or a feeling for these kinds of things. I personally will keep an open mind about it. After all, I now know not to underestimate you, humans."_

" _Good point,"_ Nyx' avatar conceded. _"Doesn't change the fact it is stupid, though. She should have charged me for it."_

" _So you wouldn't feel bad for putting her under your will?"_

" _Shut up, Nyx. I'm not doing this for fun."_

Seeing as there was still plenty of time left until Hamuko had to meet up with the new persona users, she and Nyx spent the time simply walking through town and getting themselves familiarized with the area. Indeed, Inaba turned out to be the textbook definition of a town in the boonies. Patches of farmlands here, housings there and the occasional dog owner going for a walk. Barely any people were around on the streets, most of them being either at work or in school. The most exciting thing the avatar and the goddess could find was a river with a playground nearby.

There were some tree stumps placed near the river for people to sit on and as it turned out, someone was sitting there. It was a man in a green uniform of a delivery company and from the looks of things he was taking an early lunch break. He was glancing down on his watch now and then, while eating his sandwich. Hamuko decided not to talk to the man. She had heard stories about how people in the delivery service had to rush from one place to the next and barely got any time to even do as much as using the toilet. The last thing the man needed was some random girl talking to him.

Instead, Hamuko sat down on a free stump and watched the fishes swimming in the water.

" _You know, I don't think I have ever seen an animal coffin during the dark hour. Not even one belonging to a spider or a rat."_ Hamuko told the goddess inside her mind.

" _Why would you want to see a transmogrified animal? It would simply be a smaller coffin."_ Nyx replied.

" _Oh! Imagine a whale during the Dark Hour! That would make one huge coffin!"_

" _Do you wish to see one? You know what you have to do for this,"_ the goddess spoke cheekily.

" _Let's put a pin on that one for now. But remind me to check the ocean when we end the world."_

Nyx laughed inside the former wild card's head. _"I am surprised you can speak so casually about a subject like this."_

" _Why shouldn't I? It's not like I'm on a schedule or something. Like tomorrow I have to end this world, in a century or two I have to end the next and so on. Screw that."_

Nyx chuckled at her avatar's words, imagining how the girl had to fly from planet to planet, being late on destroying an entire galaxy, like a high schooler running late to attend class.

" _Say, I am curious. How do you plan on fighting inside a yukata? Your high school clothing is hardly fitting for combat and now you're wearing a dress."_

Hamuko looked down on her newly acquired clothing item and frowned. _"I guess I'll focus on magic? I mean, I can change clothes inside the TV-World. Although putting the yukata back on is going to take some time. I'll think about it. As long as I don't have to wear high heels, like with high cut armor…"_

" _High cut armor?"_ Nyx asked curiously, which was only increased by the fact that Hamuko started to giggle.

" _It's an… interesting piece of armor,"_ the former human spoke in amusement. _"I can't really describe it now. If we stumble across it, I'll show you."_

" _If you say so…"_

Hamuko looked up when she heard the delivery man standing up and walking to where he presumably parked his delivery truck. She looked after the man and noticed that he was slumped over and generally looked like he was in a bad mood.

" _Guess he's having a bad day."_

Hamuko returned her attention to the river and imagined how it would look like during the Dark Hour. Probably not as impressive as an ocean made of blood, but maybe it would have its own distinct beauty, especially with the full moon shining down. It had always given the green world such a nice contrast.

" _I really wish I had my headphones with me right now."_

" _Why don't you simply play the harp? Your first persona was Orpheus, even though Orpheus was a male and not female,"_ Nyx stated.

" _Just because Orpheus was my first persona, doesn't mean I can play the harp. And don't get me started on the whole gender thing. I have spent weeks researching about Orpheus to try and find some kind of explanation of why she was female but didn't manage to come up with anything."_ Just thinking about this exhausted Hamuko all over again.

" _Every other persona I could find something, but nothing about a female Orpheus."_

" _Hmm. Well, it is not worth thinking about it. It might have been simply a quirk of your subconsciousness. Or the persona itself adapted to yourself being a female,"_ the goddess speculated.

" _I am not sure if any of that made any sense. Whatever. Do you have any ideas about what we should do until the meeting? I'm already running out of ideas."_ Hamuko frowned.

* * *

Hours later and after having explored what felt like at the very least half of the town, Hamuko and Nyx found themselves at the Junes food court. The entire mega store appeared to be livelier than the rest of the town and that was not only because of the music. There were just more people packed together in a relatively small space, compared to the rest of the town.

Naturally, the people around here were giving her curious glances what with her wearing a yukata and everything. She had the feeling she was receiving more attention than during the time she was wearing her high school uniform. Although, this might be because she was in an area with a large number of people now. And the numbers were only increasing with each hour that passed.

Hamuko had been lucky enough to find a discarded newspaper at one of the tables. Figuring it would be a good idea to find out the current state of her home country, she began to read. She was very disappointed when it turned out that this was a local newspaper, which focused on happenings in the immediate area. The serial murder case was still on the front page, despite it having happened some time ago. She guessed that murder wasn't as common of an occurrence in the boonies, as it was in the big cities.

Other stories were about the local table tennis team, temporarily losing a valuable team member after he broke two of his fingers. Then there was an article about the local farmers, how they had to fight with decreasing food prices — the usual first world problems.

Hamuko considered doing the crossword puzzle, but she lacked a pen. As such, she and Nyx had to contempt themselves by just answering the questions inside their heads or rather inside Hamuko's head. It turned out to be a good time waster, as both goddess and avatar tried to come up with the answers. Nyx had a much harder time than Hamuko, mostly because the goddess had not paid much attention to the human realm, before the whole Dark Hour fiasco.

Hamuko's and Nyx' attention were whisked away by the sounds of chairs scratching over the ground. Yu, Yosuke and Chie had arrived at the scene and were taking their places.

"Hey," Yosuke greeted with a nod. "What's with the get-up? Is there a special occasion or something?" the brown haired teen asked.

"The special occasion would be the funeral of my washing machine," Hamuko spoke in the most convincing deadpan voice she could muster. "Whole apartment got flooded. Boxes soaked, floor ruined…"

Chie winced. "Ouch. Tough luck," the green wearing girl said.

"Your apartment got flooded?" Yu asked, his voice full of sympathy.

"Yup," Hamuko slumped back into her chair in an overdramatic fashion. She then told the three students the same lie she had been speaking all day, only with a bit of additional content. How her stuff got damaged, how she would have to wait until everything was either repaired or most likely replaced and how she was staying at the Amagi Inn at the moment.

"You're staying at Yukiko's place?" Chie asked at the end of the explanation.

"Yukiko? Is that a friend of yours?" Hamuko was confused when she saw Chie looking down on the table. Her face looked like she had just been told that her mother got admitted to the hospital.

"Yukiko-san is the latest kidnapping victim," Yosuke took over. "We're currently trying to rescue her."

"Ah right, the murders," Hamuko nodded. "I still don't have a full grasp of the situation. Would you mind filling me in a bit?"

The entire explanation took a bit of time and sounded almost as unbelievable as Hamuko's story. What happened was that a rumor started spreading around town about the so-called Midnight Channel. It was a unique program that only aired on rainy days, on midnight. As if that wasn't absurd enough, you could only watch this when your TV was unplugged. So far, it sounded like the start of a lousy creepypasta.

By meeting all of the requirements as mentioned earlier, you were supposed to see your soulmate on television. The three of them tried it out one night and all three saw the blurry image of a girl. It was back then when Yu accidentally discovered that he could go inside the TV.

"So, you already had your persona back then?" Hamuko asked.

The silver-haired boy scratched the back of his head, looking uncomfortable. "I am not sure. It makes sense from what we all know so far, but it's not like now when I can feel my persona in the back of my mind."

"Oh wait, you feel it too?" Yosuke asked. "Ha, I thought I was the only one. It's kinda weird. It feels natural, yet at the same time, it's like a fly buzzing around my head."

"I know, right?" Chie nodded. "I sometimes get the feeling that someone is watching over my shoulders. Like a teacher standing behind you during a test."

"You get used to it quickly," Hamuko commented offhandedly. "I kinda miss the feeling of my having my persona at the back and call. It's like I lost one of my senses and now have to work with the remaining four."

" _And what about me?"_ Nyx asked.

" _You're way different, Nyx. A persona feels like a sixth sense you didn't know you had. You feel like someone replaced my heart with a fusion generator."_

" _I take it as a compliment."_

"That's right. You lost your persona," Yu remembered out loud.

"I can't imagine how that must feel," his partner said.

"It doesn't matter," the avatar waved off. "I have gotten used to it. Let's get back to the matter at hand. So Yu-san found out he could somehow enter the TV-World. I take it you went in the next day?"

"Indeed," Yu nodded and proceeded to explain the group's further experiences with the TV world. Staying too long in there was deadly for none-persona users as their "shadow selves" might appear and attack them. Upon further questioning, Hamuko learned that a shadow self is a manifestation of your own repressed emotions. Everything you hate about yourself, everything you don't want others to know about you: that was what a shadow self is. The shadow self bombards the real person with all of those things, trying to rile you up and getting you to deny its existence. Once you have done that, the shadow becomes "free" and attacks the real person.

"That is one heck of a situation we have here," Hamuko commented at the end of the explanation. "I didn't know shadows and personas are the same thing. I always thought they were the complete opposite or something. Then again, I never faced my own shadow. I wonder how that would have turned out…"

"Take it from me, probably not good," Yosuke commented in a dry tone. "I was lucky that Yu already had his persona or else I'd be a goner. I guess you two are just special."

"Special, huh?" Hamuko repeated, thinking back on the one event that made her so special. Silently she wondered if Narukami had something similar happening to him in the past, making him "special" too.

"Whatever. So, to summarize everything: your friend is trapped in the TV-World. We have time until the fog settles in to rescue her or else the shadows will get her. Alright, count me in."

"Count you in?" Yosuke repeated.

"Well, she is a capable fighter," Yu pointed out, referring to events from the other day. "Plus, she is a veteran when it comes to fighting shadows."

"Even so, you don't have a persona anymore," Chie pointed out. "Even if we get you some equipment, are you really going to be okay fighting without a persona?"

"Says the girl that ran straight into danger, when she didn't have one…" Yosuke muttered just loud enough for Yu to hear.

"Oh, don't worry about me," the former wild card grinned. "I was strolling through town today and found a rather interesting store," the brunette tapped on her shopping back. "As for my lack of having a persona? Well, there's something I have to show you, once we're inside the TV-World."

Hamuko refused to give any more details until the group was inside of the TV. Yu questioned if his predecessor would be even capable of defending herself wearing a Kimono, to which the former wild card replied that she was carrying her old school uniform with her and would change in the other world.

While the group of four were making their way to the electronics department, Yu walked a little slower than the rest, resulting in him walking just behind his new friends.

"Remember, keep an eye on her," he whispered, receiving two subtle nods from his companions.

* * *

"Whoa!" Hamuko exclaimed, after somehow landing on her own two feet, without feeling any pressure on her legs. And from the looks of things, despite falling a couple of hundred meters or so, everyone else had landed relatively safely, too. Not that she could see much, to begin with since the fog was blocking most of her vision.

 _"Right, I forgot about that part."_

Feeling Nyx' power coursing through her, the former wild card wasn't surprised to see the other persona users flinch, presumably because her eye color changed.

"This is gonna take some getting used to," Yosuke muttered, adjusting the glasses he just put on.

"Oh, you're back!" A happy voice shouted, gaining everyone's attention. The bear that resembled a mascot, Teddie, was walking towards the group, coming from one of the bridges leading to the broader TV-World. "And you brought Hammy-chan with you!" the bear smiled.

 **"Hammy-chan? Points for originality, I guess. Sheesh, that voice. I sound like a female Darth Vader."**

This statement caused the three Investigation Team members to snort in amusement. "When you think about it, she kinda does," Yosuke said with a grin.

"Hmm? Who is Darth Vader?" Teddie asked.

 **"Never mind that right now. The others have filled me in on what is happening. I am going to help you all from now on."**

"Really? That's great!" Teddie jumped around in place with a happy grin. "By the way, I was wondering since last time. Why do you look like a shadow?"

Hamuko let out a small sigh. **"It's a long story. The short version is, I fought a strong shadow, it somehow screwed me over and now I can't summon a persona anymore."**

"You could summon a persona once? Like sensei and the others?"

 **"Uh… yes."** _Who is this sensei guy?_

 _"Maybe he was referring to one of the persona users?"_ Nyx suggested.

 **"But as I said, I can't do it anymore. In return, however…"**

Hamuko didn't finish the sentence. Instead, she turned away from Teddie and faced in a direction where nobody was in her field of vision. Before anyone could ask why she suddenly stopped talking, the avatar stretched out her hand and a fireball shot out of it.

"Whoa!?"

"What the-?!"

"The heck!?"

Not unlike a persona, Hamuko cast a simple agi-spell. The fireball dispersed when it hit a ladder in the distance. The metal glowed red from the heat for a couple of seconds. The avatar of the goddess smirked in satisfaction and turned to the others. Of course, she could have used something stronger than agi, but seeing as the others were already looking at her like goldfish in a glass, it probably was for the best she was holding back.

 **"As you can see, the shadow left its mark on me."**

"What the- How… how did you do that?!" Chie exclaimed.

"It's like she herself is the persona!" Yosuke shouted, his headphones almost falling off from surprise.

Yu readjusted his glasses and composed himself. "I take it this was the shadow's work?"

The former human nodded. **"I only noticed it when I accidentally stumbled into this world. It's not that different from when I was still using my persona. I even have the same first skills."**

"I didn't know shadows could do that…" Teddie spoke slowly with wide eyes.

 **"Neither did I. Then again, what do we know about shadows? Where do they come from? Why do they exist? And what are personas?"** The former wild card through all of these questions into the round. The humans plus Teddie all looked to the ground, none having a real answer.

"Shadows are dangerous. That's all I know. It's why I have been avoiding them like fleas," Teddie explained.

"We don't know anything, do we?" Chie threw in.

"Not really…" Yosuke concurred.

"That's not important right now."

Everyone looked up after hearing Yu's words.

"What's important is that someone else has the power to enter the TV-World. That someone is using this world and the shadows to kill people. We may know nothing about shadows or personas. And we also have no idea who the killer is. However, what we do know is that we have the power to rescue anyone that is thrown in here. First, we rescue Amagi-san. Then, we catch the killer. And after that, we can wonder about the supernatural stuff."

The Investigation Team members looked at Yu in awe. Hamuko and Nyx found themselves having a newfound respect for the newest wild card.

 _"That was inspirational."_

 _"Indeed."_ Nyx gave a mental nod. " _I am starting to see why he was chosen as the next Wild Card."_

 **"Alright then, leader,"** the avatar of Nyx spoke up, with a confident smile on her face. **"Having a sweet tongue is nice to get your** _ **social life**_ **going, but that alone won't save anyone."** The predecessor walked closer to her successor. **"How about you put your mouth where your mouth is and make good on those words?"** she asked, outstretching her hand.

Yu looked down on the hand for a second, before grasping it firmly. He mentally noted that the older girl had a secure grip as well. "I will," was his simple reply.

~Thou art I… And I am thou…~

~Thou hast established a new bond…~

~It brings thee closer to the truth…~

~Thou shalt be blessed when creating

Personas of the Universe Arcana…~

Hamuko smirked to herself when she saw the silver-haired boy spacing out. Silently she was wondering what kind of Arcana she represented, although it was most likely the Fool.

* * *

Margaret stared in shock when she saw the Universe Arcana floating into her compendium. During her time as an assistant, no other guest had ever established a bond with someone who represented that particular Arcanum. Of course, given the little visit the residence of the Velvet Room had experienced the previous day, the blonde woman already knew who had established a bond with her guest.

Looking over to her master, Margaret swore, at this very moment his grin widened ever so slightly.

* * *

Back inside the TV-World, the group was currently navigating towards the place where they knew Yukiko was. Apparently, some sort of castle formed, after she got dropped into this world. So far, the group had explored up to the fourth floor of the complex.

Since it would take some time until they arrived at the castle, Hamuko decided to chat with her new acquaintances. She even went so far as to "turn off" her eyes, forcing her to rely on the others to guide her through this world.

"And after reprimanding him for sleeping in class, the poor guy had to bake my homeroom teacher a cake. She even went as far as to say that he shouldn't buy one from the store again."

"Again? Does your old homeroom teacher always demand cake as punishment?" Chie asked, slightly flabbergasted.

"Pff, you think she is weird? Our school nurse was some weird guy, who's into the occult. There was one time I had a stomach ache, so I went to his office and asked if he had something."

The avatar shuddered. "I have no idea what he gave me, but from there on out, I always went to the pharmacy, when I wasn't feeling all that good. And given the amount of time I spent staying up until midnight, I got sick a lot."

"Yeesh, I'm glad we are not on a one-hour time limit to explore this place. It takes a while to get to that castle, let alone fight our way through it," said Yu's magician confident.

"By the way, what was this Tartarus like?" the brown-haired boy asked.

"Hmm, not sure if I can properly describe it. It was one large tower with a big clock. It looked like an amalgamation of multiple buildings, forcefully stashed into each other. There were blood puddles everywhere on the inside. Sometimes a blood waterfall would form on the outside. The first time you see it, you get creeped out just by looking at it."

"Whoa! Sounds like it came straight out of a horror movie."

"I'd put it more into the fantasy genre. Tartarus is not so scary once you get used to it. The only thing that made it somewhat scary were the shadows inside. The interior was rather lackluster, to be frank."

 _"I notify Hades to hire an interior decorator,"_ Nyx said jokingly.

"Hey! Look over there!"

Everybody stopped upon hearing Chie's exclamation. She was pointing with her finger in a particular direction into the fog. Reactivating her powers, Hamuko could see what the short haired girl was pointing at.

 **"A treasure chest?"** the avatar asked, upon seeing the golden box. The object was just standing in the middle of nowhere. Nothing could be seen for miles, they still had a ways to go, before they reached the castle. Sure the fog had changed color to red, but that was about it.

"Oh boy, we're beary lucky here!" Teddie exclaimed.

"But what is a treasure chest doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Yu voiced Hamuko's unspoken question. "I mean, we have seen some inside Yukiko's castle, but here?"

Teddie shrugged. "Sometimes treasure chests appear for no apparent reason. It happens rarely, but there is usually something useful in them. I was beary surprised when we found so many smaller chests inside the castle of that girl the other day."

"So treasure just appearing is normal here? Why do I feel like more and more that we're inside a video game?" the Junes heir asked no one in particular.

 **"I found plenty of briefcases inside Tartarus that also contained useful stuff. I stopped questioning my lucky fortune after finding a buttload of money."**

"Well, how about we open it?" Chie asked.

"Unfortunately, those big chests need a key to be opened. And we used up the last one already," Yu explained, causing the girl to let her head fall.

"Ugh, really?"

"That's another thing that bothers me. Why do the keys disappear after we use them?" Yosuke asked again.

Hamuko looked at all of her companions in confusion. **"So, it's locked? Why not just bust it open?"**

"We already tried that," Yosuke explained.

"Those chests are surprisingly tough," Yu picked up. "None of our weapons could even put a scratch on it."

Hamuko deadpanned at the others. **"And you didn't try out your personas, why?"**

Nobody could give her an answer to that. All the humans and Teddie could do was blush in embarrassment and look away. Rolling her eyes, Hamuko approached the golden goodie and inspected the lit for a second.

 _"Okay, I don't want to damage whatever is inside accidentally, so I go for low-class ability. Nyx? Which Arcana of yours uses strike attacks?"_

 _"I would recommend Chariot."_

Nodding subconsciously, Hamuko changed her Arcana from Magician to Chariot, already feeling her possibilities changing.

 _"Strange. It appears that you have a wider variety of skills on your hand than my previous Avatar.2_

Said Avatar made a mental note to talk to Nyx about this later. A red aura surrounded Hamuko, as she was gathering energy. The Investigation Team watched with interest as the girl raised her arm and smashed her fist against the treasure chest. The lid flew off into the distance, sliding across the ground a couple of meters until it was barely in sight. The humans and Teddie behind Hamuko gawked in awe at the sheer display of physical power.

"D-dude did she just-?!" Yosuke stuttered, unable to finish the sentence.

 **"Aha! The spoils of war! Now let's what we got- ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"**

The others were startled by the avatar's sudden exclamation of anger.

"What now?!" the only human girl in the group asked.

Teddie whipped around his feet as if he was trying to look over Hamuko's shoulder. A futile attempt, as the sheer distance made it impossible for him to look past her.

"Is something wrong?" the mascot looking being asked.

"Maybe it's something useless? Like those Peach Seeds, we keep finding?" Yosuke speculated.

"Let's have a look," Narukami suggested and walked ahead. The others followed him to an angrily grumbling Avatar of Death, who gave the contents of the chest the fiercest glare she could muster. The anger of the former wild card was quickly understood, as everyone felt a high increase in temperature around their cheeks.

For the contents of the chest found themselves to be revealed as the glorious High Cut Armor.


	6. Chapter 6

"What the hell is this thing?!" Chie exclaimed in extreme anger, which pretty much mimicked Yukari's reaction when she had first seen this particular article of clothing. Although, calling it an "article of clothing" was an extremely generous description of the High Cut Armor. It looked more like something a stripper would wear. Or maybe a girlfriend would surprise her boyfriend in this thing.

"That is… I honestly don't know what to say…" Yosuke spoke slowly, carefully minding his words.

"Unexpected?" Yu offered, he himself feeling uneasy.

"Yeah, let's go with that."

"Hmm, I have never seen anything like this before," Teddie mused. "Is it armor?"

"No way in hell is that armor!" Chie screamed, startling the poor bear. "That thing barely covers anything up. I mean, look at it! No, don't look at it! Burn it!"

Hamuko suppressed the urge to sigh and took the highly questionable armor into her hand. **"Never thought I'd have to see that thing again."**

" _I think I understand why you weren't able to describe this armor properly to me."_ Nyx did nothing to hide her mirth.

"Wait! You know what this is?!" Yosuke exclaimed in shock.

" **Sadly, yes. I found the same thing in Tartarus."** Technically speaking, Theodore had given it to her as a reward for doing something for him. When he first told Hamuko the reward would be the "High Cut Armor," she just thought it would be regular armor. The name may have been strange, but she didn't think much about it. Plus, at the time, her finances had been stretched thin. Any armor she could get without spending money had been a blessing at that point. A blessing for the boys as it turned out.

" **This is the High Cut Armor. As you can see it has a rather… unique design."**

"Unique my ass, get rid of it already!" Chie shouted.

" **Sadly… this armor actually has its uses."**

"Huh?!" Everyone, aside from Teddie, froze at that moment.

" **You see, this armor works differently than your regular chest plate. Instead of protecting you with metal, this thing conjures up a magical barrier around your body that can block a certain amount of force. The barrier isn't perfect, but from experience, I can say that it is tougher than most of the regular armor us humans can create."**

"Is this some kind of sick joke?!"

Hamuko turned towards Chie and gave her a deadpan stare. **"Do I look like I am joking? This armor has one other effect. Namely, it increases your Persona's magical potential. Oh and obviously only girls can wear it."**

"Huh. This armor sounds beary useful," Teddie said, looking at the thing. Yu desperately wanted to disagree with Teddie, but sadly, he couldn't. From a purely tactical standpoint, this armor was surprisingly useful. If Hamuko was accurate with her description than that thing was way better than the chain vests he and the others wore beneath their uniforms. Another point was the magic bonus. The group had noticed that Chie became tired very quickly when she used magic. An increase in her magical abilities would be beneficial to their cause.

"Well, if you like it so much, why don't you wear it?" Chie growled at the older girl.

" **Hey, I'm just stating facts here. No need to get all hissy with me."**

"Well, it's not like Chie can wear it," Yu stated, noticing a critical fact about the armor.

" **Huh?"**

"What do you mean? Wait. Are you telling me I'm not feminine enough to wear that?!"

Yosuke and Teddie made the wise decision to take a couple of steps back. Yu, on the other hand, kept his cool and explained his reasoning. "This armor comes with high heels." The silver-haired boy pointed at the shoes. "And you use weapons attached to your feet. I don't think you could fight properly while wearing high heels. Unless the heels were blades…"

"Oh, so that's what you meant!" his classmate said in realization.

" **Blades instead of heels on shoes? I'm pretty sure there's a manga like that somewhere…"**

"Well, guess Chie lucked out on that one!" Yosuke grinned. "Too bad Arisato-san. Looks like you're the one who's stuck with wearing that."

"This is definitely better than what Hammy-chan is wearing right now. She'll have a way easier time moving around in the High Cut Armor," the local bear reasoned.

Chie felt the sudden urge to kick both boys in the place where it hurts the most. However, for this one time, she decided to let it slide. She was just glad she didn't get stuck wearing that abomination.

" **Yeah, I figured that would be the case. I'll change when I get the chance."**

Surprisingly for the humans, Hamuko took it all in stride. She put the armor into the back where her weapon and school uniform was and got ready to continue on.

"Huh, you're not bothered?" Yosuke couldn't help but ask, a light blush appearing on his cheeks. In return, Hamuko looked at the fellow brown-haired dangerously.

" **Let's get one thing straight. If any of you guys do something stupid, I will have no problem sending my boyfriend on the trail on you. After I have burned your testicles, of course."**

Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie sweatdropped, all feeling a sudden chill running down their spine.

"Yikes. For a second, I thought I saw the grim reaper himself." Yosuke gulped audibly.

"Let's avoid antagonizing her unnecessarily," Yu suggested.

"Agreed."

Chie snorted at the comments of the boys. Still, she was a little surprised that Hamuko was so easily persuaded into wearing that thing. Feeling a little uncomfortable, the martial artist quickly followed up to the veteran fighter.

"Hey. Are you really okay with wearing… that?" Chie whispered, pointing at armor in the bag.

" **Eh, let them watch all they want. Boys tend to do that kind of thing. As long as they keep their hands to themselves, I don't mind. Besides, doesn't that just proves that I am pretty?"** Hamuko gave Chie a coy smile.

"Eh… I don't think I can see it that way…"

" **That's fine. To me, this thing is just like a swimsuit. People always check each other out on the beach, so I am going to imagine I am walking on a beach with my hot boyfriend on my side."**

"I wouldn't count it as a swimsuit either…"

Hamuko giggled at Chie's discomfort. Truth to be told, Hamuko might be somewhat of an exhibitionist. She loved showing off her body to others. She wasn't sure when she had realized that this was a thing she liked or when it had developed in the first place. But she suspected it came sometime around when her puberty began. She had especially fun with the High Cut Armor and her teammates. During the explorations through Tartarus, she would act like the High Cut Armor was just another piece of armor. She'd put on a naïve face when her teammates looked flabbergasted or blushed in embarrassment. Ah, good times.

" _Embrace your desire."_

" _SHUT UP, NYX!"_

* * *

From the outside, Yukiko's castle looked like it came straight out of a Disney movie. It was a pretty generic 15th-century looking building. On each side of the entrance was a wall with rose bushes sticking out from behind it. Horse statues had been placed on said wall, standing on their hind legs. Hamuko right now was behind one of those walls, changing outfits.

" **Damn it, was it always this complicated putting that thing on?"** she groaned. The others could hear the sound of rustling bushes and shuffling of clothes. Chie was keeping an eye on all of the boys, making sure they didn't sneak a peek at the young woman.

" **Argh! Stupid branch!"**

"Everything okay over there?" Yu asked.

" **Yeah,"** Hamuko huffed. **"Just my hair getting entangled with the local plant life. I'm almost done."**

Satisfied, Yu turned away from the wall and drew the sword from his sheath. He gave the weapon a quick once over, looking for anything that showed his untrained eyes that the weapon was breaking or something. Some of the enemies had extremely tough skin. At specific points he thought his sword would break, but it seemed like the local weaponsmith knew what he was doing.

"Dude, I can't believe she's actually going through with this." Yosuke, of course, referred to Hamuko and her armor. His cheeks were slightly red.

"Yosuke, I hope you don't have any weird ideas," Chie growled.

"H-hey, don't give me that look! I'm just shocked, that's all!" Yosuke defended himself.

"Don't worry, Chie-san," Yu spoke in an amused tone. "I think Yosuke values his manliness too much to risk it."

"Hah! Manliness? I haven't seen much of that with him lately."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

" **Okay! I'm done."**

Despite himself, Yu couldn't help but look up in anticipation. After all, in the end, he was still just a teenager pumped to the brim with hormones thanks to that little thing called puberty. And boy, he was not disappointed. Hamuko was carrying herself in stride. She walked inside that armor like she was wearing a Sunday dress. Her clothing showed off all the right spots and hid enough to get someone like him extra excited.

The leader of the Investigation Team decided to look away before his mind got carried away by his less than stellar thoughts. He made a mental note that it was high time he got himself a girlfriend. Yosuke had not the willpower to look away. His jaw had almost detached itself from the rest of his face. This was almost surreal. It reminded him of his video games where the female characters wore ridiculously revealing armor and even walked all-

"Gagh!" Yosuke's train of thought was painfully interrupted by Hamuko, who had grabbed the boy by his uniform and dragged him down on his knees.

" **You may look. But you may not touch. Understand?"** The avatar spoke in a commanding tone, glaring down at the brown haired boy.

"Y-yeah!" Yosuke choked out. "Ah!"

Hamuko dropped the boy unceremoniously to the ground. The girl spun her naginata around a few times, before locking eyes with Yu. The silver-haired boy suddenly found himself standing at attention. He felt like something had changed about the woman's aura, something that made him want to obey her orders. On the other hand, it might just be his brain getting overwhelmed with visual stimuli.

" **Ready when you're, leader."**

"R-right," Yu cleared his throat, trying to compose himself. They were here for a reason after all, and soon enough, the group would put themselves in a life and death situation. The last thing they needed was for him to ogle over the veteran fighter, who appeared to enjoy making the boys nervous.

Chie found herself strangely impressed with the way Hamuko handled Yosuke. It reminded her of the fairy tails where an evil queen or someone similar would use her looks to get what she wants. And here she saw it all in live action.

"Teddie, can you bring us back to the fourth floor?"

"Wha-?! I mean, of course, sensei! Leave it to me."

The (wannabe) kung fu master looked over to the mascot bear in wonder. Apparently even Teddie had been drawn in by Hamuko-san's beauty, which was weird, considering he was a bear and not a human. One would think he had other preferences.

"Teddie can transport us to the last floor we have been to," Yu explained Teddie's strange abilities to Hamuko. "The layout of the castle changes every day, which means we can't draw any maps or something. Once we're inside, Teddie will stay a little away to not get caught in the crossfire of a fight. Since he doesn't have a persona, the shadows will leave him alone."

"I cannot fight, but I do remember what attack has what effect on the different shadows. At least the ones we've met so far," the bear explained.

The avatar nodded, understanding. Yu had already explained Teddie's abilities to her.

"By the way, what sort of abilities do you have?" Yu asked Hamuko.

Everything would have kind of been the right answer, but Hamuko couldn't just have the group steam roll this place or else she would only hamper their growth. On the other hand, she needed to pull some weight, so she went with a compromise.

" **Well, my new powers are a little weird. Do you remember how I used Bash on the chest lid? And before that, I used Agi, the fire spell?"**

"Yeah, what about it?" the green wearing girl asked.

" **You see, I don't have access to all of my abilities at once. How should I put this…? Ah. Have you noticed how each of your personas have different arcana?"** she asked.

"That Tarot stuff?" Yosuke asked for confirmation. "Yeah, I looked it up online. Apparently, I'm a Magician."

"I have Chariot," Chie said.

"The Fool," Yu simply stated.

" **Yeah, see? Here's the thing with me. I can change my arcana from between Fool to Death. And depending on which one I have selected, I can use different abilities."**

"Ah, so you're kinda like my partner here," Yosuke realized. "You see, he can somehow change between different personas. Kinda unfair if you ask me."

" **That so?"** Hamuko asked.

"You don't seem surprised," Yu noted.

" **To be honest, I could do the same once."**

"Wait, what?!" the brunette boy exclaimed.

"Really?!" the girl next to him shouted.

" **Yup. But it all went away. How do you suspect I managed to climb Tartarus on my own? If I would have been stuck with just one persona and met an enemy that is immune to all attacks I can throw at it, I would be a goner."**

"That… makes a lot of sense," Yosuke realized. "Oh well, that doesn't mean I'll sit this one out. Since I have this power, I might as well use it to help others."

"Yeah, I feel the same," his female classmate nodded.

 **"Then how about we stop talking and start using our power? I have to admit I am a little excited in finding out what I can do."**

XXX

Teddie's teleport didn't feel any different from using a teleporter in Tartarus. There was a sudden feeling of weightlessness, followed by slight disorientation upon finding yourself in a completely different location.

 **"That's the inside? Looks kind of disappointing if you ask me."**

The hallway Hamuko, and the others found themselves in could only be described as bare. There was a red carpet stretching throughout the halls, white walls and the occasional window. There seemed to be a bit more fighting space than in Tartarus, but then again. The rooms and hallways inside Tartarus could be as small as Hamuko's old dorm room or as big as a ballroom.

"It may not look like much, but this place is dangerous. It seems the higher we go, the stronger the shadows will become," Yu told his predecessor.

"But now, we're at full strength. Those things won't take us off guard a second time!" Chie proclaimed.

"You got that, right! Although, I hope I won't have any trouble focusing on the battle," Yosuke muttered the last part to himself, eyeing Hamuko from the side. The avatar pretended she didn't hear it but smiled silently to herself.

 _"Are you actively trying to get the poor boy killed?"_ the goddess inside Hamuko asked in amusement.

 _"Don't worry. Once he gets injured, he'll have his head back. It worked with Junpei."_

"Alright, follow me and keep an eye out."

With his sword at the ready, Yu took the lead. Yosuke and Chie followed him a little behind, each covering a flanking side of their leader. Hamuko and Teddie formed the back lines, with Teddie staying a little further away, seeing as he was the support. Said bear oddly enough found himself very interested in Hamuko's butt. He didn't know why, but for some reason, he found this part of her body quite fascinating.

He was brought out of his musings when he smelled the shadows getting closer to their positions. "Sensei, be careful. I smell one coming our way."

Immediately the group tensed up. Hamuko tried to suppress the excitement building up in her chest, as she would need to focus on what was about to come. Sure enough, only a few steps later, the group of humans (and non-humans) came face to face with one big, formless blob. It appeared to be aimlessly crawling on the floor. Aimlessly, until it's white mask set sight on the castle invaders.

"Here it comes," Yosuke growled.

Arms suddenly appeared out of the formless blob, and it charged towards the group, flailing the arms in all direction. Yu ran directly towards the shadow, readying his sword. Both opponents attacked at the same time, swords and arms clashing in the air. Yu staggered backward a little, and the blob disappeared into dark mist. Said mist split up and quickly reformed itself into three floating dice.

"Three enemies! Be careful! These explode if you let them charge up for too long!" Teddie shouted from behind.

 **"Then let's take care of them quickly!"** Hamuko declared and charged past Chie to strike the enemy she had set her sights on. Her naginata came crashing down on the foe, producing a clanking noise. The shadow staggered back into the hallway but appeared relatively okay. Yu and Yosuke produced similar results from their attacks. Chie, to the girl's frustration, couldn't engage in melee. The hallway was just too tight.

"Physical attacks aren't working that well! Try something else!" their navigation shouted.

"Like this?!" Chie shouted and kicked a spinning Tarot Card in mid-air. Her persona, a female humanoid one with yellow clothes, white sports shoes and equipped with a naginata of its own appeared. An ice shard flew towards the dice Yosuke had attacked, and it got stuck. The shadow shook, not violently, instead it floated inside a small space and appeared as if it was having trouble staying there.

"Izanagi!"

"Jiraya!"

Seeing Chie's success, the boy's summoned their personas. Yosuke's used wind, which slammed the dice against the wall, but didn't do the trick. Yu's lightning had more success, in that the shadow disappeared completely in black smoke.

"Its weakness is electricity!" Teddie exclaimed happily. "Be careful! They're almost done charging!" The bear followed up in panic. Hamuko reacted to his words and slammed with the back of her weapon against the foe. Acting like Junpei, Hamuko shouted "Homerun!" as the shadows collided and died.

"Crisis averted," Teddie breathed a sigh of relief. The group gathered together in the middle of the battle zone. Hamuko watched the others picking up money and something that looked like junk. It was a broken cable from the looks of it.

 **"Why are you picking this up?"** Hamuko asked, pointing at the cable Yosuke had in his hand.

"Deidara can make something useful out of those. It may not look like much, but you should have seen what he made with the last stuff we brought him," the brunette explained. "He also pays us a decent amount of money for it. It's a double win for us."

 **"And he doesn't question where you get this stuff from?"**

"Yeah, he's weird like that."

As far as the money went, it was divided between everyone equally. This resulted in everyone getting only getting chump change, but Yu promised it would add up eventually. After the money was distributed, Chie had a comment to make.

"You know, those shadows didn't even fight back."

"That's a trick. Dice shadows rarely attack back, because it disrupts them from gathering energy," Teddie explained. "But once they have gathered their energy, they usually leave behind a pretty huge crater."

"Well, now that we have their weakness, we know how to deal with them. Let's go."

They came across a door. The hallway went on for a little bit, but you wanted to check out if there was something hidden inside the room. There was something inside. Only it wasn't anything good. In the middle of the square-shaped room was a shadow. Or multiple shadows, no one could tell until they engaged. Luckily for the group, the shadow did not appear to have heard them opening the door.

"Should we attack?" Yosuke whispered.

Yu didn't give an audible response. Instead, he opted to as silently as possible approach the shadow. With careful steps, he approached the formless being from behind, raising his katana when he was almost in range. The metal came down and slashed the blob in half. The shadows appeared as they did previously. The difference this time was that the enemy was disoriented. There were four hand-shadows, and they were tumbling around on their fingers.

"Four enemies! They're weak to ice!" Teddie shouted from behind.

"Guess it's my turn! Tomoe!" Chie shouted, summoning her Persona. An ice shard flew towards one of the tumbling shadows, knocking it over.

"Chie-chan knocked down an enemy!"

Hamuko, for her part, had switched to the priestess and gathered her energy for a quick knock-down. Unlike Chie, the avatar could use Mabufu. And use it she did. The girl stretched out her hand, and multiple ice shards flew out of it, heading straight for the shadows. Every single one of them had their body stabbed, and before their brains could even realize what had happened, they disappeared into clouds of smoke.

 **"Easy enough."**

Yu and Yosuke, who had been in the middle of summoning their personas, looked impressed at the display. The tarot cards disappeared, and everyone relaxed their stances.

"Whoa! What was that?!" Yosuke asked.

 **"Mabufu. It is like Bufu, but it hits multiple targets. Your personas should learn the ma-spells at some point."**

"Holy! What can't you do?! You took them out with just one hit!" Chie exclaimed.

 **"Well, for one, this armor is doing its work."** Hamuko gestured down to herself, causing Yu and Yosuke to look away, blushing. The former wild card smirked. **"The magic boost shouldn't be underestimated. Like I said, each Arcana I can use, gives me different kind of skills. And I have fourteen in total."**

"But why only those? Doesn't the Tarot deck include more cards? More than twenty if I recall correctly." the leader was thoughtful.

 **"Don't look at me. I didn't come up with this power. All I can do is use it to the best of my ability."**

The silver-haired boy nodded in understanding. "I should have asked you of this earlier, but once we're done for today, can you tell me what skills you gain through each individual Arcana?"

 **"Can do."**

"Ahhh! Incoming!" Teddie shrieked, running past the group. They barely had time to react, as not one, not two, but three blob shadows appeared from the entrance of the room. Hamuko barely responded in time to cut one of them down. However, the other two got past her and advanced towards the humans. The avatar had no time to chase after them, as she found herself confronted by three tables.

 _"Damn! I'm surrounded!"_ the avatar realized, referring to the shadows that got past her.

 _"Don't worry about them. As long as you don't make the first move towards them, they will leave you alone. Besides, it's not like any of those weaklings can harm you in any way."_

As if to underline Nyx' words, the tables all flung their flying knives, pans and whatever else was flying over them towards the avatar. Hamuko raised her naginata, but only managed to redirect a knife towards the floor. The rest of the kitchen utensils hit her straight on. The only thing here was that she barely noticed them making contact with her. It felt like someone was trying to stab her with plastic spoons.

 _"I… I don't feel anything."_

A zio spell hit her directly in the face. The only reason she knew she got struck was because she had seen the split second the lightning had been visible to her.

 _"I know this armor is tougher than it looks, but still, I should feel something."_

Nyx chuckled in amusement. " _They might as well throw feathers at you. It seems you haven't quite realized it yet, but you're no longer human. As much as you look like one, you are several leagues above them."_

Hamuko slowly but steadily moved towards the shadows, who just mindlessly kept assaulting her with spells and attacks. When she was close enough to the beasts, she slashed them so long with her naginata until they fell in battle. It was a ludicrous scene. It was like someone had turned on god-mode, and when the brunette girl thought about it, it was a fitting metaphor. She had all of the powers of a goddess at her disposal, plus whatever the Universe Arcana came with. Even back when she was human, her personas would have been enough to minimize the damage to nothing more than her clothes getting torn. Thanks to the magical barrier created by her armor, she didn't even have to worry about that.

Soon enough, the last table shadow disappeared, allowing Hamuko to turn around and aid her comrades. To her pleasant surprise, the humans already managed to get rid of the shadows that had broken through to them, and now they were gaping at her with jaws hitting the ground.

 **"What? Never seen a woman in a kitchen before?"** She just couldn't resist, even if the pun had been awful.

"H-how…" Teddie muttered his eyes, having shrunk to pinpricks.

"I guess there is something to this armor after all…" Yu managed to get out. The other two found themselves stunned to silence. "And while I hate to ask this, is there a male version for this?"

Hamuko almost lost it, barely able to support herself on her naginata. She covered her mouth with her free hand and suppressed the laughter to the best of her abilities. Nyx didn't show any of these inhibitions. Yosuke and Chie looked at their leader like he had grown a second hand.

 **"There is,"** Hamuko confirmed, her voice full of mirth. **"I found some male bathing trousers that do the same thing. I had no use for them, so I threw them away. So, Yu-san? Are you ready to put on a show for us girls?"**

To the boy's credit, he managed to laugh the situation off. "If it means saving Amagi-san? I guess I can swallow my dignity. I also have to admit. I admire the guts you have for wearing something so provocative in front of strangers. And I mean it."

The brunette girl grinned at the new wild card. **"Falling for me already? Too bad! I'm taken!"**

"Well, I guess I am officially jealous of your boyfriend then."

Both former and current wild card shared a laugh at their exchange. Teddie in the meantime looked at the silver-haired boy with some newfound respect. "Sensei is ready to wear something so embarrassing to save someone else? Sensei is a true man!" the bear declared.

Chie blushed, having imagined what Yu would look like if he would wear a similar thing to what Hamuko was wearing. Yosuke did too, although his reaction was the complete opposite. He even felt embarrassed when he thought about running through the TV-World half naked. Not to mention how people would react if he accidentally ran out of the world, without changing back into his uniform. The thought was downright mortifying.

"All right, everyone. Let's keep our heads in the game," Yu declared after his laughing fit ended. "Let's gather everything useful and then go on. Teddie, keep an eye on the entrance and tell us if something comes."

"Right away, sensei!" the bear saluted and ran to the entrance of the room, peaking outside. Chie and Yosuke were both glad to have something to take their minds away from their dirty thoughts and started gathering materials. Yu and Hamuko shared a knowing look.

 **"By the way, how did you get rid of the shadows so quickly?"** the avatar asked, as she helped to scan the ground for anything useful.

"They were weak ones. We were lucky nothing big came out of those blobs. Do you know what those things are by the way?"

 **"The blobs? Not really. From my experience, they usually consist of up to five shadows each, depending on how big or small they are. The shadows have the advantage in that we don't know their numbers or their type for that matter. But, I did notice that those things don't move that fast and that their vision is rather limited. You already seem to know the advantage of striking those things in the back."**

Yu nodded, putting what seemed like a dried up tongue into his pocket. "Teddie told us about how disoriented shadows get when we hit their backside. He also taught us the basics of combat, exploiting weaknesses, and such."

 **"Hmm, for someone who stands in the backlines, he knows a lot about how to fight shadows. Then again, it can be because he lives here he needed to gain the experience in order to survive."**

After everything had been gathered, the group exited the room and followed Yu back into the hallway. As they exited the room, Hamuko found Yosuke glancing over to her every so often. She gave the boy a light slap on the shoulder, gaining his attention.

 **"Focus boy or the shadows make sure I will be the last thing you'll ever see,"** she said in a sing-song voice. **"In hindsight, this wouldn't be such a bad thing, would it?"**


	7. Chapter 7

So far for Hamuko, the entire mission was a breeze. Every time the group encountered shadows, she would easily kill at least two, before her team members had any time to react. Despite the brunette complaining about not being able to move correctly in high heels to Nyx, she was proving to be not only the strongest but also the most agile member of the entire group. It also helped that she shadows wholly ignored her until she made the first strike. And by that time it was too late for her foes to do anything to stop her. She was a goddess of the battlefield, and the others were beginning to notice.

"You're a juggernaut, Hamuko-san!" Yosuke complimented the older girl. "With you at our side, nothing can stop us!" he exclaimed.

 **"I dunno. An all you can eat buffet can keep me rather occupied, you know?"** the avatar joked. She swung her naginata over her head and gave the boy a grin. **"But you're right. I was expecting all of this to be a lot harder. Given that I haven't been fighting in years, I thought I would have to work my way back up, so to speak."**

"We should count ourselves lucky you are this strong," Yu spoke up. "If not for your help, we would have a harder time fighting our way through this castle."

"But that doesn't mean you can hog all of the fun to yourself," Chie said in a stern voice. "I am not getting stronger if you take care of everything. Leave some for me!"

 **"Haha, I'll try to hold myself back. No promises, though."**

As it just so happened, the group stumbled across the staircase leading to the next floor, and Yu decided they should take it. Once on the next level, Teddie smelled the area with his nose. "I can sense her!" he exclaimed. "She must be on this floor!"

Just as he finished, there was a chuckle echoing throughout the halls. The voice belonged to a female human. However, Hamuko was able to hear something else in that voice. It was a dark echo, similar to the one Hamuko's voice had when Nyx was channeling her power into the avatar.

 _"This must be the shadow self our companions have been talking about,"_ Nyx said to Hamuko. _"I can sense her, too. It is interesting. She feels like a shadow, yet at the same time, she feels like she is more."_

 _"More?"_

But Nyx had no time to answer, as it was Yu who spoke up. "If she is on this floor, then there is a good chance we'll have to fight her. Let's avoid the shadows to the best of our ability."

"Hang in there Yukiko. We're coming," Chie vowed and followed her two male companions deeper into the castle. A little behind, Hamuko hurried after the group. But soon enough, they came to a stop, when they heard the same voice again.

 **"Wow! By any chance, are you… My Princes? I'm locked up here… Please save me! Hmhmhm… I'm sure my Princes can do it… I'm sure they'll brave any danger to release me from this place… I'll be waiting for you. Ohoho…"**

Everyone looked at each other, confused about the words.

"This seems very strange…" Teddie spoke slowly.

 **"Did she say, princess?"**

"No, I think she was using the plural for 'prince,'" Yu explained. "But I don't understand. What does she mean with that she's trapped in here? And why does she need a prince to save her?"

Yosuke shook his head. "The more we hear about this, the more it sounds like a fairytale story. I wonder what could Yukiko-san be suppressing for something like this castle to appear."

"Does it really matter?" Chie's tone was impatient. "She's on this floor, so let's go and save her already!"

The group walked ahead further. They found a door, but it turned out to be locked. After getting confirmation from Teddie that Yukiko wasn't in that room, the group continued down the hallway. Yosuke already began the motion of reaching out to the handle, when all of a sudden there was a bright light. Everyone cried up in surprise. The light was gone soon enough, but so was the door.

"What?! Where did the door go?!" Chie exclaimed. Everyone looked around frantically hearing Yukiko chuckling in the distance.

 **"A trap,"** Hamuko concluded. **"Looks like your friend's shadow wants to mess with us. We need to figure out a way around this quickly."**

"Agreed," Yu nodded. "Let's proceed for now and keep your eyes open. Maybe there is a clue hidden here somewhere."

Following their leader's call, everyone proceeded forward. Another door came into view, but just like the first time a light engulfed the entire group, and the door disappeared.

"Is this like this thing in the desert? A mirage?" Yosuke speculated.

It happened another time. A bright light engulfed the group, the door disappeared, and Yukiko's chuckle echoed through the hall.

"This is getting annoying," Chie grumbled.

"Still, we need to move on," Yu urged.

 _"Hamuko, tell them to wait."_

 **"Wait, everyone!"** Hamuko shouted, not knowing why Nyx wanted her to stop everyone else. The humans stumbled over their own feet, before turning around.

"Whoa, what is it?!" Yosuke asked.

 _"Yes, Nyx. What is it?"_

 _"I have been tracking the shadow of the girl the entire time. She is right behind us inside another room."_

Hamuko swirled around, confusing the others with her action.

 _"That is the trick behind everything. The doors didn't disappear. We have been teleported this entire time."_

 **"Follow me!"** the avatar commanded and ran ahead. Startled the others followed the girl as quickly as they could. The door came into view only two seconds later, and this time, there was no bright light when Hamuko stopped right next to it.

 **"Teleport traps,"** she explained. **"There are teleport traps right in front of every door on this floor. That's what has been happening to us."**

 _"Good thing you noticed it, Nyx."_

 _"My pleasure. It would have been rather tiresome watching you all ran around in circles for hours."_

"Good work," Yu praised.

"She's in there!" their local guide exclaimed, after sniffing the door. "That girl is inside that room!"

Immediately everyone became focused. Yosuke checked his knives, Chie jumped in place uneasily, and Yu readjusted his glasses.

"Everyone ready?"

After getting confirmation from everyone, Yu opened the door, and the group ran inside. They did indeed found the girl they were looking for alone inside the room. Hamuko was taken aback by the appearance of the girl. She had long black hair, wore a small crown, a reddish pink dress straight out of a fairy tale and most importantly, her eyes. They had the same yellowish glow that Hamuko's had.

 **"So that's why you thought I was like her,"** the wild card realized.

Suddenly the doors behind them slammed shut, and before anyone realized what was happening, a large knight shadow, riding a horse appeared out of nowhere.

 **"My Prince wouldn't lose to guards such as this, correct?"** Shadow Yukiko asked, as the knight engaged.

Instincts taking over, Hamuko jumped out of the way, before the knight could skewer her with its lance. The others scrambled into fighting position, allowing the shadow to cast a spell that caused a red aura to appear around it.

"It increased its attack power! Be careful!" Teddie shouted.

"We need to find its weakness! Izanagi!"

"Jiraya!"

"Tomoe!"

The knight was hit by three different spell types (lightning, wind and ice), causing it to be slightly thrown from one direction to the other. All it appeared to do was to aggravate the shadow. Hamuko had just thrown her own Agi, but missed her mark, when the shadow galloped straight towards Yosuke. The poor boy couldn't jump out of the way in time and got overrun. Literally.

"Yosuke!" Chie shouted in shock.

"I'm fine… or not…" the boy groaned, lying on the ground. The knight in the meantime had set its sight on a new target, charging towards Yu.

"Izanagi!" the boy resummoned his persona, ready to intercept the attack. The humanoid persona swung its weapon at the knight, but the knight was faster. Yu screamed in pain when Izanagi's stomach got pierced by the weapon. The silver-haired boy fell to the ground, clinging his stomach due to an invisible injury.

"Yu-kun! Why you little…!" Chie too summoned her persona and sent Tomoe towards the opponent. The knight got hit to the side but didn't appear all too fazed. "You want some more?!" Chie shouted challenging.

In response, the shadow used Power Charge, making Hamuko's eyes go wide. She knew how much damaged a charged up attack could do, and as such, she had to deal with this shadow quickly. Raising her hand, she fired multiple firebombs towards the shadow. Some of them missed their mark, but those that hit knocked the opposition down. Hamuko didn't let up on the barrage until the familiar black smoke flew out of the room.

Ignoring Chie's stunned expression, Hamuko first ran up to Yu.

 _"Okay, healing spells. Which Arcana had healing spells?"_

 _"Originally none,"_ Nyx spoke, sounding surprised. _"But it appears the Fool has gained some. Strange."_

 _"Strange or not, it's definitely welcome now."_

Holding out both hands, Hamuko went all out and cast a Diarahan. Almost immediately, Yu stopped groaning, and he relaxed visibly. Seeing her work done the avatar ran over to Yosuke and repeated the procedure.

"Thanks," the boy nodded and got up at the same time as Yu did. "Wow, I feel like I could run a 100-mile marathon."

"Are you two, alright?" Chie ran towards the group, sounding worried.

"Thanks to Hamuko-san, definitely," Yu nodded in appreciation. "That was too close. I didn't think the shadows would get strong."

 **"Let's retreat for now."** It wasn't a suggestion. It was an order. **"Healing spells are all nice and dandy, but your bodies still need some proper rest. If we push on now, your bodies might not be able to take it."**

"But I feel fine now, thanks to your spell," Yosuke protested.

 **"Yes, you do, and normally we could move on. But given how fast you two collapsed just now, I can see that your bodies have not fully adapted to fighting shadows yet. Best case scenario, you guys won't be able to move when we get home. Worst case scenario, you guys won't be able to move ever again!"**

Both Y-boys gulped at the tone of Hamuko's voice.

 **"Our human bodies need some adaption time before they can handle the stress of getting ripped apart and stitched together in a matter of seconds. You may feel fine now, but your insides are currently easily breakable. Your body needs to "reinforce" the necessary parts first. In a way, it's like when your bones get broken. They get tougher once the damage is repaired, but only IF the damage gets repaired at all."**

Hamuko gave both boys a stern look. **"But if you boys still want to continue, you can always go to the complaints department. That's my naginata, by the way."**

* * *

In the end, Yu and Yosuke decided against filing a complaint by the department. Yu took a special gem out of his pocket that transported the team back to the entrance. Hamuko once again retreated behind the wall to change clothes. Yu used this opportunity to talk to the rest of his team.

"We got taken out too fast in that fight," he stated. Yosuke looked to the ground uncomfortably, and Yu could hardly blame him. He felt just as bad for what happened during the fight. "We need to get to Hamuko-san's level as fast as possible. I'm afraid without her we'd be the ones hanging from the rooftops tomorrow."

The others nodded at the thought.

"Hamuko-san managed to fight shadows all on her own and survived. The fact that we got our asses handed to us like that…" the brown-haired boy trailed off.

"We need to improve!" Chie declared. "I may have gotten scot-free in this fight, but that's because Hamuko-san did all the work! Have you seen her in action? She was relentless on that shadow! And she didn't even break a sweat!"

"Hammy-chan must have been through a lot if she can use spells like that," Teddie chimed in.

 **"Gah! Not again, my hair!"**

The others looked towards the wall, before shrugging. "In any event, we still have some time left. We should use that time to get stronger!" Yu declared. "That gives me an idea, maybe Hamuko-san is ready to help us train."

"Are you sure? Aren't we still suspecting her of being the killer?" Yosuke asked.

"Honestly, I am not so sure anymore. I know Hamuko-san is hiding something, but today she had plenty of opportunities to kill us and didn't do it. At least, for the time being, she seems to be willing to help us."

"She's weird," Chie commented. "But she did save our lives today. So I guess we can give her the benefit of the doubt."

"Hmm," Yosuke looked down, thinking. "Yeah, I agree. It wouldn't make any sense for her to help us if she were the killer. I guess we can ask her."

* * *

As it turned out, Hamuko approved of the idea of training the others. However, she had to inform them that she would be busy the following day. As such, they would have to wait a bit before they could do it.

The others didn't seem to mind too much. Initially, they hadn't even planned on going into the TV-World today. They only went in to introduce Hamuko to everything. Since she had no time the following day, the group could go after their personal lives tomorrow and rest their muscles for a bit.

When they reached the entrance of the TV-World, it was time to divide the loot. Hamuko told Yu to keep her share since she still owed the boy for the previous day. With the money he would get from selling the materials, the two should be even with that. Graciously Yu accepted the money.

After saying goodbye to Teddie, the group exited to Junes and from there went their separate ways.

* * *

Yu was lost in thought as he was walking home. A lot had happened the past two days, especially today, and he needed to organize his thoughts. For one, he almost died today! If it hadn't been for Hamuko-san that shadow would have finished him off for sure! The mere thought brought shivers down his spine. He had been careless. He thought Izanagi would be able to stop the shadow, but he had been sorely mistaken and paid the price. This could not happen again!

On a lighter note, he made a new social link. This one had him a little puzzled. If he remembered correctly, there was no such thing as the Universe Arcana in Tarot. Unless Social Links didn't follow the Tarot Deck one hundred percent. It made him wonder what kind of Personas he could get from the Universe. So far, none had been available to him via fusion. He considered asking Igor the next time he visited the Velvet Room.

Another thing on his mind was Hamuko herself. The young woman was an enigma to him and his friends. She was a skilled fighter, and should she turn out to be the killer Yu was afraid he and his friends would have a bad time fighting her. On the other hand, so far, Hamuko had been supportive of their cause and even saved their lives today.

Still, despite all of this and the girl telling the team her story, he just knew she was hiding something. Whether it was something traumatic that happened in her past or some kind of dark secret, he didn't know. And it wasn't exactly his place to pry for more information. Given her behavior, Hamuko was in her right to keep a couple of secrets to herself. Maybe in time, Yu would be able to make her warm up to him and tell him those secrets.

* * *

 _"They went down way too fast,"_ Hamuko told Nyx, as the avatar was walking through the shopping district. _"An attack like that shouldn't have knocked the other two out, Tarukaja or no Tarukaja."_

 _"Then what do you suggest happened?"_ Nyx asked.

 _"Nothing happened. Those three persona users are just weaker than I thought they would be,"_ Hamuko explained. _"I wasn't expecting them to be on my level or anything, but since the boys went down with just one hit each, it means they haven't been training as hard as they should have,"_ Hamuko explained.

 _"I suppose it is good then that they asked you to train them. Do you have something in mind?"_

 _"I'm working on it. On another note, you said I have more abilities than I should have earlier?"_

The goddess mentally nodded. _"I am not sure how it happened, but I assume it has something to do with the Universe Arcana. Our powers must have come together when we proceeded with our escape. Shall we go over them now?"_

 _"No,"_ Hamuko walked into the shrine area and took a seat on a free bench. _"There is something else I want to ask you."_

 _"Oh?"_ Nyx grew curious when she felt her avatar emanating a considerable amount of guilt. The goddess had no idea why her avatar was feeling this way, but she had a feeling this had something to do with the question Hamuko wanted to ask.

 _"Nyx… what happened to Ryoji?"_

And that explained it all. Nyx was all too aware of the relationship her previous avatar had built up with the former Wild Card. It looked like until now, Hamuko had forgotten that she had practically replaced Ryoji, who was seemingly nowhere to be found. But the goddess could quickly calm the former human down.

 _"Why, he's here. Just like the other pieces, he has become part of you."_

Hamuko looked up, confused, and hopeful.

 _"Thanatos, Death, Pharos or Ryoji, whatever you want to call him, he is now a part of you. He is inside of you, waiting for you to call him out and use his power against your foes. Just like you have used the powers of the other Arcana Shadows."_

 _"So, he is inside me? Just like when Aigis sealed him inside of me?"_ Hamuko put a hand over her heart.

 _"In a way. This time he isn't a prisoner, however. He is you, a part of you."_

 _"Can I talk to him?"_

Nyx remained silent for a couple of seconds. _"If you can isolate him from your soul and somehow call him out, then maybe? What you're asking is the same as if you're trying to rip a persona away from your soul forcefully, so the two of you can have some tea time together."_

"Oh," Hamuko spoke out loud. "It isn't that easy, huh?" Nyx didn't answer. There wasn't a need for an answer. Ryoji was now something similar to a persona. But Hamuko could comfort herself in the thought that Ryoji was still there, inside her soul. Indeed, he was now a part of her soul. And if she knew him right, he was probably enjoying himself, watching some of her more perverse fantasies, thoughts, and memories. The avatar turned red.

Shaking her head, Hamuko tried to focus on something else. For the next couple of hours, the former Wild Card did nothing more than sit around and watch the children play at the shrine. Despite being very bored just hours ago, before entering the TV-World, the avatar found herself strangely at peace to just sit around and enjoy the fresh air. Maybe it was because Hamuko actually had the chance to enjoy herself now. Perhaps it was because before she died, her schedule had been full every single day. Maybe seeing Yu and Yosuke almost kicking the bucket made her appreciate even more what she had now.

Whatever the case, Hamuko was at peace with herself. She and Nyx had a bit of small talk going on. It revolved mostly around the children and the various games they were playing with each other. The brunette woman casually explained to the goddess the rules of each of them and even went as far as to tell her about Maiko, the Hanged Man Social Link. The conversation then went over to Ken, who was not acting at all like his age. The former wild card laughed when she told the goddess how embarrassed Ken could become when he was caught acting appropriately of his age. Or the times he tried to make himself like black coffee.

Time passed quickly as the two had their silent conversation. The sun went down, and the children were picked up by their parents, and it was time for Hamuko to go back to her temporary place of residence. Taking the bus, the avatar arrived back at the Amagi Inn, where she was able to enjoy a lovely dinner. The brunette paid extra close attention to the staff, seeing if Yukiko missing was affecting their overall mood. If it did, the staff members did an excellent job in hiding their discomfort.

 _"Maybe I should just save her,"_ Hamuko wondered. _"I can handle whatever the TV-World throws at me."_

 _"Interfering in another Wild Card's journey could wield unforeseen consequences,"_ Nyx told the other girl. _"I suggest we give the new Wild Card his chance to prove himself worthy and only interfere if necessary. We might accidentally get the attention of whoever is pulling the strings from behind the scenes, and that person might think that drastic measures must be taken to achieve whatever goal the hidden enemy is after."_

 _"And once they realize they can't take us on, they go after Yu and the others, who at this point struggle even against the simplest of shadow forms."_

Hamuko let out a sigh. _"I'm going to have my work cut out for me if I want to turn them into a capable fighting squad. I should consult which personas Yu has available at the moment. I don't remember him changing personas all that much today."_

Nyx nodded inside Hamuko's head. Since the brunette didn't feel particularly tired after dinner, she turned on the TV, once she was back in her room and switched over to the quiz show.

* * *

The night went, morning came, and Hamuko once again needed a significant amount of time to realize that yes indeed, she was alive. Nyx wondered out loud if her avatar was feeling alright after the brunette had a hysterical laughing fit.

Washing, getting dressed, breakfast, Hamuko had a smile plastered on her face the entire time. She greeted each individual staff member she came across, complimented the chefs for a fantastic breakfast (even though most of the stuff one could easily get from the next best bakery) and with a happy tune on her lips and a spring in her step, she made her way to the shopping district. She didn't take the bus this time, she walked. Why did she go on foot? Because she was able to do so, simple as that.

It had seemingly finally hit her. Hamuko was alive. No longer confide to being a giant boulder, hanging on barbed wire in front of a door, the girl now protected everyone via merely existing. She thanked Nyx over and over again throughout the day for giving her this opportunity, the goddess getting flustered by all of the sudden praise.

It was at this very moment that Hamuko silently swore she would live her life to the fullest and not waste the chance she has gotten, no matter what happened. She also made an oath to make everyone's life as painful as possible if they did anything that threatened everything she had worked for so hard. Nyx was her (very amused) witness.

Despite going on foot to the Shopping District, Hamuko still arrived way too early there. School wasn't scheduled to go out for another two hours, and she was growing somewhat peckish. Ignoring the guilt inside her stomach, Hamuko instead focused on her hunger and thought about who she wanted to owe money to the Chinese Diner or the small food stand in the alley. Before she could make a decision, it was taken out of her hands.

As it just so happened, Tsukiko Tatsumi exited her shop with a small trash bag in hand, which she put into a can on the side of the road. The older woman immediately noticed Hamuko walking down the street and waved her over.

"Good day to you, Hamuko-chan," Tsukiko greeted the younger woman.

"Hello, Tatsumi-san," Hamuko greeted back.

"My son is waiting in his room for you. Are you ready to tutor him?"

The brunette tilted her head in confusion. "Your son is waiting for me? Isn't it school time?"

The older woman sighed. "Yes. Yes, it is," she confirmed.

"Oh…"

There was an awkward silence between the two females until Hamuko cleared her throat. "Anyways, since the two of us are already here, we might as well start now. Can you bring me to him?"

Tatsumi-san silently nodded and led Hamuko through the house. The avatar of the night silently wondered what Tsukiko's son would be like. She had seen no pictures of him, and so far the only information she had about him was that he was a first-year in high school, skipped school, and had bad grades.

"Kanji?" The mother knocked at the door, presumably leading to her son's room. "Your tutor is here. Are you inside?"

The sound of hasty shuffling could be heard from inside the room. "Just a minute, ma!" A voice shouted from inside. The shuffling continued for a couple of seconds. Hamuko could hear a creaky door being opened, some things falling over and the light grumbling of a teenage boy. After the violent closing of presumably the same door, someone approached the door and opened it.

Kanji was nothing like Hamuko would have imagined. He had his hair dyed blonde, wore a skull t-shirt under his open school vest and a scar above his left eye. The boy looked like the stereotypical biker out of those American Movies. He reminded her a lot of Shinjiro, just by looking at him.

"Kanji, this is Hamuko Arisato. She will be your tutor. Hamuko-chan, this is my son, Kanji. He may be rough around the edges, but I assure you he is a true sweetheart."

Kanji blushed and looked. "Ma, I told ya to not say stuff like that in front of strangers," the blonde complained.

"It's nice to meet you, Kanji-kun. I'm sure the two of us will get along," Hamuko greeted the boy with her trademark smile.

"Huh? Yeah, likewise… sensei…" Kanji didn't sound nearly as enthusiastic as Hamuko.

Tsukiko quickly excused herself, saying she needed to look after the shop. Hamuko in return entered Kanji's room and was surprised how tidy and bare bones it appeared to be. There was a dresser with two Maneki-nekos on it, a bed, a wardrobe, a small table with sitting cushions in the middle and some dirty clothes in a corner of the room. Kanji's school bag was lying in front of them.

Ignoring the surprising lack of interior, although Hamuko noticed the wardrobe door being slightly ajar with something sticking out of it, the brunette took a seat on a sitting cushion and waited for Kanji to do the same.

"Well then, Kanji-kun. Your mother told me you needed help in school, but she didn't specify which subject. Can you tell me where you need some help?" Hamuko kept smiling at the boy, knowing this was the easiest way to get people to open up to her.

"Uh… yeah. I kinda suck at all of it," her student replied bluntly.

"All of it, huh?" Hamuko was not surprised. He certainly looked the type who didn't like to study. "Then I guess we got our work cut out for us. How about you show me the subjects your teachers went through with you last, and we work our way through from there?"

Kanji raised an eyebrow at the young woman. Whether it was due to her being so enthusiastic or something else, Hamuko couldn't tell at this point. Reaching out with his arm, Kanji took his school back and took some random blocks and stakes of paper out of it. Unsurprisingly, it turned out Kanji wasn't the most organized of individuals. His notes were all over the place if he had any at that. Hamuko found exercise tasks from the different subjects on a single paper alone. That's not to mention that almost every task was incomplete.

Hamuko kept her expression carefully neutral as she went over each paper, trying to make a picture as to what they currently went through in Kanji's school. She requested some of his school books and asked him to point out for her where they had worked on. As it turned out, he could only do that for less than a handful of subjects.

"Yup, definitely work cut out for us," Hamuko mumbled. Kanji just sat there on the opposite side of the table, not looking ashamed in the least.

"Oh well, no pain, no gain!" Hamuko declared in a cheerful voice. "Since you don't remember which subjects you're supposed to learn about, we'll just have to go through all of them!"

"Say what?! You can't do that!" the boy protested.

"Of course! Unless you actually go to school and find out what it is you're supposed to learn."

In response, the blonde let out a "tch" and looked away.

"Come on, Kanji-kun. You don't want to disappoint your dear mother, who went all the way through to hire me, right?"

That certainly did the trick, as Kanji was now entirely focused on Hamuko. At the same time, the boy appeared not to be very happy about having his mom brought up as leeway.

 _"How did you know he would react this way?"_ Nyx asked.

 _"The way he interacted with his mother. He may look violent and probably is, but he respects his mother. He would have screamed at her earlier if he didn't do that."_

"Let's start with Math. First, we have a look at what your notes say and…" Hamuko wanted to facepalm at this point. Not because of Kanji's notes, although the little angry face was funny to look at. But because of the subject Kanji was supposed to learn.

"Oh yeah, I remember that. Half of my class failed in this because our teacher could not explain it to us properly."

"Huh, really?" Kanji asked in a slightly curious tone.

"Yeah, I myself barely got through," Hamuko confessed. "A friend of mine managed to explain it to me in a way that made it easy to understand. Okay," Hamuko grabbed the math book and searched through the appropriate page. "You see here, the example they have written down? Makes it look fairly simple, no?"

"Uh… yeah? I guess…"

Hamuko refrained from deadpanning at the blonde boy, as that would have been just plain rude. Instead, she opted to do some probing here and there for the time being and went through the subject with Kanji.

* * *

As it later turned out, Kanji lacked some basic knowledge he should have picked up in middle school. Why it was missing or how he managed to enter high school, the avatar didn't know, and neither did she care. What she did care about was teaching Kanji the basics he needed to understand the advanced stuff in high school.

Kanji for his part was surprisingly willing to learn everything Hamuko had to teach him. Maybe it had been the threat of disappointing his mother? Whatever it was, he did try to learn everything Hamuko explained to him, but it was a slow process. Hamuko quickly learned that Kanji wasn't someone who understood things very quickly. He wasn't lazy like Junpei had been, rather he needed more time to comprehend everything than others. Hamuko was patient and ready to explain the same subject multiple times if necessary.

In order to prevent the lesson from getting stale, Hamuko switched things up every now and then. History was purely memorization. The most the brunette could do here was share learning tips, like associating important happenstances in time with food. It worked for her.

English was only partially memorizing things, namely the vocabulary. The other part was learning the grammar, not to mention the western alphabet. It was easy for Hamuko who had spent a couple of years overseas, but not so much for a typical student like Kanji. They would have to return to this subject on a later date.

Science was another can of worms altogether. Explaining to Kanji how, what and why something worked the way it did would take a long time. Again, it wasn't because Kanji was dumb. It was because it took longer for him to comprehend things.

At some point, Tsukiko came in and invited Hamuko and Kanji to a late lunch. At this point, both senior and junior were feeling mentally exhausted, the former due to the repetitive nature her tutoring had turned out to be and the latter for using more than ten brain cells at once.

Later at the dinner table, Hamuko proposed to create a sort of timetable. She would go over different subjects with Kanji on different days for one to two hours at most. That way, Kanji wouldn't be overwhelmed with the amount of stuff he had to learn. Tsukiko approved wholeheartedly of the idea, while Kanji remained silent. Truth to be told, the boy appeared to be the silent-type despite his looks. He hadn't talked much with Hamuko throughout the day. He had complained a lot, saying he didn't understand this or how was he supposed to know that, but that was about it. All in all, Hamuko would call this a successful first tutoring session.

"Your mother cares about you," Hamuko said after Tsukiko excused herself to the bathroom.

"Yeah, she does," Kanji admitted. "Ma's always been like that. Always looking after me, even when shit hits the fan. Bet your mom never had to worry that much."

"Can't say," Hamuko shrugged. "She and dad died when I was six."

The sound of a fork clattering on the table could be heard. Kanji was staring with wide eyes at his teacher. "Oh, sorry… I didn't…" He mumbled something incomprehensible.

"It's alright," Hamuko gave her standard reply. "You couldn't have known. But, Kanji-kun," Hamuko looked at the boy sternly, a big contrast to how she had behaved the entire day. "Don't let her efforts go to waste. Yesterday, she asked me, a complete stranger to help you out with school. Do you know what she offered me in return?"

Kanji shook his head, causing Hamuko to gesture down on herself. "This dress. My washing machine malfunctioned, and now I have barely anything left to dress up in. When your mother heard this, she almost immediately offered me this. Now, I am no expert in the free market, but I can assume that normally she would sell this thing for quite a bit of money."

Hamuko stood up from her chair and put a hand on Kanji's shoulder. "What I want to tell you, is that you're lucky to have someone like her. I have met people whose parents are nothing like your mother. They downright hate them and are more than ready to cut all ties with them. Do not let this go to waste, understand?"

Kanji looked at the reincarnation of death for a couple of seconds startled, before nodding thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I think I get ya, teach. Ya never had anyone looking out for ya, like I have with ma huh? That's gotta suck."

Hamuko chuckled softly, letting go of the boy. "It's one way to put it."

"I guess I should show Ma that I appreciate what she's doing for me, by actually trying, huh?"

"I would certainly hope so. Unless you want to get on my bad side." Hamuko picked up a metal fork with two fingers and held it up to Kanji. "And trust me," the fork was snapped in half, **"you don't want to do that."**


	8. Chapter 8

Hamuko sighed as she looked at the rather lackluster choice of clothing that was given to her. Granted it had never been great, once again this was thanks to her being an orphan and not being able to buy new clothes every week like some girls did. But still, having only the choice between the Yukata gifted to her by Tatsumi-san or her old school uniform was disheartening. At least back in the day, she had a reasonable selection between second-hand clothing she got for herself from the measly amount of money she earned. This couldn't go on. The clothes would start to reek sooner or later, not to mention they could always get damaged and people would start looking at Hamuko the wrong way.

 _"You are aware that you don't sweat in this body, are you not?"_ Nyx asked in mild amusement.

"Wait, really?" Hamuko asked, blinking. She took a tentative sniff at herself, only to remember she showered this morning. Instead, she took the Yukata in her hand and put her nose on her clothing. Well, it wasn't smell-free or anything. It smelled particularly like Tatsumi-sans home, as well as her cooking. But not sweat or anything.

"That's convenient. I guess I don't have to shower every day." Hamuko thought about her words, before shrugging. "Oh well, I'm going to do it anyway. It's just way too comfortable."

That was one problem solved surprisingly quickly. The former wild card hadn't even noticed this little convenience Nyx had built into her body. It made her wonder what else the night goddess might have adjusted. Something to talk about during breakfast, the avatar thought.

"Still, I should have at least one set of casual clothing. Junes is here, so I can get them cheap, but I need a way to get money outside of the TV-World."

 _"What did you do previously to earn money?"_ Nyx asked.

"Well, I did work part-time at… oh, why didn't I think of that sooner? You're almost never asked for paperwork when doing part-time."

 _"I remember you were mentioning it earlier,"_ Nyx commented, which Hamuko waved off.

"A lot is going on right now," she said and went ahead to put the kimono on. "The last thing I expected when coming back to life was getting dragged into another incident. Then again, we didn't really think this one through, did we?"

 _"If I remember correctly, it was you who kept begging me to hurry up while I was preparing your new body. To use a human equivalent, you sounded like a five-year-old who couldn't wait to open her Christmas presents. And it was annoying."_

Hamuko grinned sheepishly, feeling the goddess rolling her eyes. So she had been a little impatient, once Nyx and Hamuko had gone verbally through the entire process of resurrecting and going back to earth. It wasn't like anything went wrong. Not entirely at least. They had aimed to land on Port Island, but that didn't work out.

At breakfast, Hamuko spoke to one of the employees, asking where it would be possible to find a part-time job. The employee told the girl that there was a blackboard in the shopping district, where people from town put on various job offerings. Thanking the man, Hamuko finished her breakfast and made her way to the shopping district.

* * *

The blackboard wasn't too hard to find it was in the northern part of the shopping district. There were more than just job listings hanging there. Missing pets, one guy asked for a new refrigerator, another one wanted to sell his car, and a poster of a woman, advertising something or other was hanging there too. Hamuko wasn't interested in the other stuff. She wanted to see the job listings. There weren't many options for her to pick.

Someone asked for a translator, although what exactly was supposed to be translated wasn't said. Now, Hamuko was very good at speaking and writing English and decent at French, but she didn't take this particular job, because it didn't even say what language needed to be translated.

Making origami cranes was another offer. Why someone asked for this, the avatar had a few ideas, but she didn't take this job as well. Hamuko wasn't good at origami, never had been, and probably never will in an average human lifetime. That was all there was to it.

Another offer came from Junes for part-time work. This one was worth considering, given that the pay appeared to be somewhat generous, by high school student standards at least. The work consisted of stocking shelves, helping out the cashier and cleaning. Making a mental note, Hamuko looked at the next one.

The local post-office asked for someone to make envelopes. It sounded boring, but it was easy to do, and Hamuko would be able to do it from within the Inn. It was tempting, given that this job wouldn't give her any time restrictions, as she could do it whenever she wasn't busy. But, Hamuko wasn't one who liked doing monotonous work, at least not as long as it was mandatory.

There weren't any other offerings, so the Nyx' avatar thought she would call Junes, but then remembered something. She didn't have a phone. There was a good chance Junes wanted to have a number from her in order to call her. Maybe she could give them the phone number of the Amagi Inn? Say she currently didn't have a phone because of her broken washing machine? And then another thought struck her. She had seen part-timers at Junes. They weren't supplied with a uniform. All they were given was a red and yellow apron, which they would put over their school uniforms. She could, of course, pretend to be a high schooler, but that would limit the amount of time she could go to work. Not to mention, they wouldn't recognize her high school uniform.

It looked like in the end Hamuko would have to take the envelope job. There was a phone number written under the job description, as well as an address. The brunette looked around for people who could give her directions. As it just so happened, another person approached the board, which the avatar was standing in front of. At first, Hamuko mistook the woman for a boy, because of the uniform she was wearing. It consisted of a yellow and red vest, which the woman had closed and as a result, hid the parts of the body that showed she was a woman pretty well. She also wore black trousers and a red cap with "Moel" written on it. Moel was the name of the gas station down the street.

Said woman just happened to be carrying a laminated piece of paper with her, which she attached beneath the job applications. As it turned out, she came here to hang up a job application. The woman, of course, noticed Hamuko since she was standing out so much and spoke to the former wild card.

"Hello there. That's a nice Kimono you have there. Going to a special occasion?"

Incidentally, the woman had hair, shoulder-length, and the same color as Yu-sans. Additionally, she had the same eye color as Hamuko. Said girl let out a chuckle at the comment.

"No, no special occasion, I'm afraid. My washing machine broke down and soaked the entire apartment I was in."

The gas station attendant visibly flinched. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"I'm sorry for the apartment owner," Hamuko laughed. "Until everything is fixed, I'm staying at the Amagi Inn. And I just moved to town, too."

"Really?" the woman blinked.

Hamuko then proceeded to tell the full lie about the supposed washing machine mishap. It came out pretty routinely, given how often she had to tell the story it came out pretty routine fashion. The gas station attendant showed herself apologetic and wished Hamuko the best of luck in getting everything replaced.

"By the way, I noticed you have been looking at the job offerings. Are you looking for one?" she asked.

"Yup! But since I don't have any clothes left at the moment, I can only accept jobs I can do at home or the Amagi Inn in my case," the brunette explained. "I mean, I can't exactly to Junes and expect them to let me work in this," she gestured down on herself.

The silver-haired woman laughed, imagining the scenario in her head.

"Well, if you're interested in part-time, my workplace gives uniforms to all of their workers." The woman tapped with her finger on the paper she hung up. "We're currently looking for someone who can cover the night shift from time to time."

"Uh, huh." Hamuko took a closer look at the job offer. As the woman had said, the gas station needed people to cover the graveyard shift. Specific weekdays weren't mentioned, and the pay was something one would expect from working at a gas station.

"Are the trousers part of the uniform?" Hamuko asked the woman, who brightened up at the prospect of having already found a potential worker.

"No, just the jacket and the cap," the woman replied apologetically.

"Hmm…" Hamuko wondered how long she would have to be in the TV-World to accumulate enough money to buy one pair of decent trousers. "I should be able to buy myself something today."

"I take it you're interested?" the woman asked. The former wild card looked at the job description for a bit longer, before answering.

"Maybe, I'm not entirely sure," the brunette answered. "I'll stop by tomorrow if I take it."

"Cool, I'm gonna go ahead and tell my boss to look out for a brunette in a kimono tomorrow."

The kimono wearing girl blushed in embarrassment. "I might come in my old school uniform tomorrow, or maybe I'll get some brand new clothes today. I'm a little tight on money since my card got busted in the accident and my bank has yet to send me a new one."

The attendant nodded, understanding. "All right. Well, I should better head back to work, before anybody thinks I'm just lazing about. Hope to see you soon."

With that being said, the woman casually strolled back to her workplace, whistling a little tune. The brunette looked back on the job offer, thinking.

 _"Something on your mind?"_ Nyx asked.

 _"It wouldn't look too suspicious if I had a little warm-up for myself before I started training with the others, right?"_

* * *

Teddie was very surprised to see Hamuko come to his world alone.

"Hey there, Teddie!" she greeted him cheerfully, after dusting herself off.

"Hammy-chan? What are you doing here on your own?" the bear wondered.

"Oh, you remember how we planned to do some training today?" she asked, to which the resident bear nodded. "Well, the others are going to be busy in school for another couple of hours. I had nothing better to do, so I thought I should come here and do a little warm-up."

"Warm-up?" the bear repeated not wholly understanding what the avatar meant.

"Yup," Hamuko nodded, taking her weapon out of her bag. "I was thinking about hitting up the castle and fighting some of the shadows."

"Huh?! All on your own?!" the bear exclaimed, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. "You can't! It's too dangerous! The shadows will kill you if you go on your own."

Hamuko laughed out loud in response at the bear's exclamation. She couldn't help herself. It was just too funny. Even back when she was just a simple human, she could have easily shrugged off any attack those weaklings at the castle could throw at her. Personas protect their user to a certain extent, similar to how the high-cut armor protects Hamuko. This scaled up the stronger the persona got to the point where you could shrug off a gunshot. At least as long as you weren't so dumb to take a particular type of medicine. And now? Well, she would have to test out if there was anything out there that could actually hurt her.

"What's so funny?" Teddie asked, clearly confused.

"Sorry, sorry," Hamuko said between chuckles. "It's just I have long outgrown these weaklings."

"Weaklings?!" Teddie echoed dramatically. "That shadow we fought the other day was the strongest shadow I have ever seen! And-!"

"And you do remember who manhandled that shadow like it was a toy?" the goddess' avatar asked with a smirk. The TV-World inhabitant went silent.

"Teddie, I have been fighting shadows for a long time. I have grown strong enough that guys like that knight or any of the other shadows at the castle can't even hurt me, especially if I wear the armor."

"But… but… " Teddie was clearly struggling to find the right words. He was unconvinced to Hamuko being able to survive the castle on her own, despite her display of strength the other day. The brunette could see that.

"Okay, how about this? As soon as I get a single scratch, we'll head back here and wait for the others, deal?" Hamuko offered as a compromise.

Teddie agreed, probably thinking that this little expedition wouldn't take long with that promise. On the way, Teddie asked what a school was, and Hamuko explained it as being a place where children and teenagers learned things like math and general knowledge about the world.

"So, why isn't Hammy-chan at school right now?" Teddie followed up.

"Because I finished school," came the reply. "You see, after going to school for a certain amount of time, it is expected of you that you are now prepared to take on a job."

"A job? What's that?"

The brunette was about to give the bear a strange look, before reminding herself that Teddie had lived his entire life isolated in the TV-World and knew next to nothing about the human world.

"Well, a job is a certain task you're expected to complete. In return, you're given a certain amount of money, depending on what job you do. And with that money, you can buy yourself some nice things. Like for example, the weapons me and the others are using."

"Ah, I see," Teddie nodded. "So, does that mean Hammy-chan has a job?" he asked.

"I am looking for one," she replied. "I have found two things today, and I am currently thinking about which of the two jobs I am supposed to do."

"Aha? What kind of work are you talking about?" Teddie seemed very interested in the topic, and Hamuko gladly explained to him her options.

"Well, there is this one employee who looks for people who can make envelopes in their free time. It's honestly a very boring job, where you fold pieces of paper over and over again into a certain shape and deliver it to them. Honestly, I am already set on not taking this job. Imagine having to build your glasses in the hundreds over and over and over again."

"Oh yeah, that would get pretty boring," the bear nodded and then took out an unfinished pair of glasses. So far, there was only half the frame and no lenses inside. "But, I don't have anything better to do here. Or at least I didn't until sensei and his friends accidentally fell in. And then you showed up as well."

"You have been here all on your own with the shadows, huh?" The avatar could somewhat relate to Teddie. The only two beings keeping her company at the great seal were Nyx and Erebus. The latter wasn't exactly much of a talker, despite having two heads. "So, this is what you do all day? Make those glasses and let the time pass? Doesn't that get boring after a while?"

Teddie let out a small sigh, putting the unfinished pair away. "You know, I have been thinking. I have been doing that a lot since sensei and Yosuke promised me to help find the one messing with my world. I was completely at peace being all on my own, even if the shadows get scary from time to time. But, as of late, I have been starting wondering about things."

"What things?" Hamuko inquired.

"Well, your world, for example. I always knew it was there, but I have never given it much thought. It was… just like the fog. It was just there."

"Hmm…" Hamuko put a finger on her cheek, thinking. Truth to be told, she had been wondering about Teddie from the time she had met him. He wasn't a shadow but calling him a normal bear would be just as false, given the looks alone.

"And after we showed up, you started thinking about our world."

"Not just your world," the bear corrected, "but other things as well. In fact, I have been thinking more than I thought possible. I thought so much I forgot what I was thinking about."

Hamuko felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of her head. Was Teddie empty-headed or something? But she couldn't wonder about that. The fog had changed color, meaning they were close to the castle.

"Let's put a pin on this for now," the young woman told the bear, feeling Nyx' power flowing through her. **"For now, let's keep a lookout for shadows."**

As confident as Hamuko was in her ability, she had had enough close calls not to be at least a little cautious. If not for her, then for her companion who wasn't capable of defending himself. Not to mention, you never knew when the Reaper decided to show up and show his ugly face.

* * *

As one might have expected from someone as strong as Hamuko, she unleashed absolute carnage onto the shadows of Yukiko's castle. She was even holding back, using only spells she considered to be "Tier 1" that being the simple spells like Bufu and spells like Bufudyne being considered "Tier 3."

Given how weak the shadows inside this castle were, even the weaker spells were enough to get rid of them in one strike each. It was madness. Hamuko spent more time collecting the money and materials dropped by the shadows than she spent exterminating them.

Teddies eyes threatened to bulge out of his costume-body, as he watched the brunette go to town with the shadows. The avatar practically danced her way through her foes, carefully putting one step onto the other, while swinging her naginata and throwing spells. She would sidestep enemy attacks almost casually, having unnatural reaction times to incoming projectiles and enemies alike. She even predicted when and where spells were going to be cast, sidestepping them in a simple motion, before counterattacking. And the few times she did get hit? There was no evidence on her body that it ever happened.

The best part of the dance macabre? Hamuko wasn't even focusing on it. She was having a conversation with Nyx, the topic being Teddie, and his existence.

 _"Teddie's entire existence is just so random. A world inside the TV shadows living here and then there is Teddie. It just doesn't make any sense."_

 _"Not from the information we have,"_ Nyx admitted _"But I have a theory. Teddie explained that this world changes, whenever someone is thrown in here. It reflects how the owner subconsciously views the world and allows for their shadows to come out."_

 _"So, if I would ever be thrown in here forcefully, do you think Tartarus would appear?"_

 _"Who can say?"_ the goddess shrugged. _Perhaps Persona-users do not have this kind of effect on this world, but I digress. What I wish to say is that Teddie might be the creation of someone else. Like this castle is the creation of the girl, Teddie is the creation of someone who was thrown in here."_

 _"Are you sure?"_ Hamuko spoke doubtfully. _"So far, all we have seen are shadows and a change in the environment. Nothing else happens when a human comes in here."_

 _"Ah, but so far we have only two examples to go by: the dead girl and the one who created this castle. Of course, there is also the first victim to consider. Maybe we should have a look at her area, too."_

Hamuko stomped a downed shadow with her food, causing black smoke to fly up from under her heal. Another one she brought to a quick end, by having it blown against the nearby wall with a gust of wind. One hundred yen coins flew everywhere.

 _"But even if another human made Teddie, wouldn't that indicate that there was another victim? I'm pretty sure the police haven't overlooked someone hanging from the rooftops of this town."_

Nyx had to concede there was a big hole in her theory. _"The only way my theory would be correct was if the victim managed to get out on their own. And I doubt Teddie would withhold information of helping another human, even if he doesn't appear to be the smartest bear."_

 _"Exactly."_ Hamuko switched Arcana and decided to try out Zio spells. Teddie's fur started going up from all of the static electricity.

 _"Yet, given that this world is heavily influenced by human thoughts or at least their subconsciousness, it is not too hard to believe a human had something to do with Teddie's existence."_

 _"Well, I can't argue with that. I mean, if I'm honest, I don't even know if I understand everything that is happening completely. I don't have an idea myself where Teddie could have come from."_ The avatar admitted.

 _"Perhaps he is simply one of those cosmic coincidences, where certain requirements need to be met at a particular time for a being such as Teddie to be created,"_ the goddess went on. _"Oh my, look to your left."_

Hamuko did as the goddess told her and down the hallway, she saw something juicy: A golden hand. It turned around and stared directly at Hamuko's face. A feral grin slowly replaced her previously calm expression, and she raised her naginata. The shadow didn't wait for long, turned 180 degrees, and ran as quickly as its sausage fingers allowed it to do.

 **"Get back here!"** The brunette shouted and chased after the money. A green aura surrounded Hamuko, thanks to a quick Sukukaja and managed to catch up in no time. The spell turned out to be unnecessary, as the shadow accidentally slammed into a wall and dropped to the ground. It died a quick death, and Hamuko found herself busy for the next five minute, collecting all of the bills. Teddie helped out.

 **"You know, maybe I should make it my full-time job busting shadows. I am quite good at it,"** she joked. Teddie didn't reply. He was still shell shocked on everything he had witnessed today.

* * *

After some time of "exercising," Hamuko decided she had collected enough money and materials to sell later. Maybe she could even start paying for her bus tickets. But the counting of the money had to wait until she and Teddie returned to the entrance.

For a time, both were silent, just walking through the vastly empty landscape and only the fog in sight for miles. Eventually, Teddie broke the silence.

"You're really strong, Hammy-chan. Even stronger than sensei," the bear said in admiration.

 **"I fought shadows for almost an entire year. Plus it seems despite me having no longer a persona I am still protected as if I had one."**

"Huh? Protected?"

It then dawned on Hamuko that this group of Persona-users didn't have a multi-billion yen company backing them up that researched shadows and personas for decades and thus all their knowledge came from trial and error.

 **"Similar to how the high-cut armor works, a Persona protects its owner by simply being there. In the beginning, it's barely noticeable, but the stronger your persona gets, the more punishment your body can endure. However, that doesn't mean you should not wear armor. The exact opposite is the case. The shadows will only get stronger, and your persona can only protect you so much."**

"Ah, I see. You're so strong because you have been fighting for so long."

 **"Basically,"** Hamuko nodded. **"You remember what happened the other day when we explored the castle, right? It's why we all come together today and start training, so something like this doesn't happen again. What's the point in trying to save someone, when you die on the halfway point?"**

Teddie nodded solemnly, seeing Hamuko's point. If they couldn't save this Yukiko girl, the culprit would get away, and then his world would never be peaceful again. Of course, a part of him still suspected that the humans helping him out were somehow responsible for this whole mess, hence his decision in following them around in the first place.

"So, how do you plan on training the others?" the bear asked. The avatar and Nyx had talked about this the evening before bedtime, discussing how they could effectively train the new Persona-Users. Ideas were thrown in here and there. Hamuko spoke about a few of her more memorable battles, as well as close calls. They even brought up the final confrontation on top of Tartarus.

 **"Well obviously first, I need to see where their limits are and what their personas are capable of doing. Then I need to make sure they know everything there is to know about Personas. After that, I can determine which way is the best way to train each of them. I have a few ideas, but I don't want to throw anything out before I know a bit more about them."**

"Wow. You have planned this through." Teddie's eyes sparkled in admiration.

 **"Of course. This isn't some game where when you lose you can just try again. This is serious."**

Eventually, the two made it back to the entrance. Hamuko took her money and told Teddie she would be waiting outside for the others to arrive and would come back as quickly as the others arrive. The brunette also decided to check out the clothing section and see if anything was for sale.


End file.
